Council Service -

[observer]

If you only speak/read Paunjabi, Gujurati, Bengali, Urdu, French, Polish or Slovak - you'll be pleased to note, that the Council (at our expense), will allow you to register to vote in your own language; seeing that your over here and incapable of communicating with the majority of the inhabitants in the National tongue of English. However, it does pose a question for Candidates and Political Parties: how do non-English speakers know who to vote for, if they don't understand what they claim to stand for? So have candidates got to also print their leaflets in these languages? And how many more languages do we need - Somali? Afghan? Rumanian etc etc.

[Paul Kennedy]

I've often thought that rather than spend money on translation services etc, it would be better to spend the money on teaching those who cannot speak English, to speak English. That way they can be fully integrated in to the wider society with all of the benefits that that brings....including the promises offered by our politicians.

 

मैं अक्सर सोचा है कि बजाय अनुवाद सेवाओं आदि पर पैसा खर्च करते हैं, यह जो लोग अंग्रेजी नहीं बोल सकता शिक्षण पर पैसा खर्च करना बेहतर होगा, क्या अंग्रेजी से बोलते हैं. इस तरह वे पूरी तरह से व्यापक समाज के लिए किया जा सकता है कि लाभ है कि हमारे नेताओं द्वारा की पेशकश की वादों सहित .... लाता है सब के साथ में एकीकृत.

 

Ja często myślą, że zamiast wydawać pieniądze na usługi tłumaczeniowe itp., lepiej byłoby przeznaczyć te pieniądze na nauczanie tych, kt?rzy nie m?wią po angielsku, m?wić po angielsku. W ten spos?b mogą one być w pełni zintegrowany z społeczeństwu ze wszystkich korzyści, jakie przynosi .... tym, że obietnice złożone przez naszych polityk?w.

 

我常常想，与其花的钱翻译服务等，这将是把钱用在谁可以教那些不会说英语的钱，说英语。他们可以完全集成在同这一带....包括我们的政治家提供的承诺，所有好处更广泛的社会迈进。

[Rifles]

حمولة من برعشيت القديمة

 

На натоварване на стария лайно

 

A obciążenie ze starego filmu

 

Jedan teret za stara Dodjavola

 

ایک بوجھا کے پرانے پونکنا

[Evil Sid]

aggh thought i had a virus on my pc for a minute

[Dizzy]

Wokde me up too

[observer]

On the plus side, it could bring an international following to the board - IF you can understand it!

[Evil Sid]

have enough trouble understanding some of the "normal" post on here

[Bazj]

Paul,

 

was the third paragraph one of Tara Dads Pink Ladies Posts??

[Paul Kennedy]

[Dizzy]

Do they issue council tax/business rates in multi lingual format too.

Spent 3 hours today trying to work out what a business rates bill should actually be as small business rate relief has yet again NOT been deducted.

 

Might as well be reading punjabi or even speaking it as no-one seems to be able to explain it to me or give me a figure

[observer]

Can't you complain to that Plain English outfit?!

[Paul Kennedy]

Do they issue council tax/business rates in multi lingual format too.

Spent 3 hours today trying to work out what a business rates bill should actually be as small business rate relief has yet again NOT been deducted.

 

Might as well be reading punjabi or even speaking it as no-one seems to be able to explain it to me or give me a figure

 

From 1 April 2005, any small business that qualifies will be able to gain rate relief on their non-domestic rates bill.

 

Properties with a rateable value of up to and including ?5,000 will be eligible for 50 per cent rate relief.

 

For properties rated from ?5,001 up to and including ?10,000, the amount of rate relief will decrease by an estimated 1 per cent for every ?100 of value. Your local billing authority will calculate the exact decrease.

 

The relief will be funded by increasing the rate payments for properties valued at ?15,000 or more (?21,500 in London) by an extra 0.7 pence per pound of rateable value. Qualifying properties valued from ?10,001 up to and including ?14,999 (?21,499 in London), will have their rates bill calculated without this increase.

 

To qualify for rate relief:

 

you must occupy one property. Any other properties you occupy must have rateable values below ?2,200 and the total rateable value of all of your properties must be under ?10,000

all properties must be on the local rating list on 1 April of each year

you must apply for the relief to your local billing authority within six months of the end of the chargeable year

This scheme only applies in England.

 

Here is a link for more info.

 

http://www.warrington.gov.uk/Business/

[Dizzy]

Yep

 

So in laymans term.... what should a small business actually pay each month to WBC in business rates if they meet all the critera and for example their rateable value is ?7800 ??

 

Answers on a postcard please to WBC or better still on here

[observer]

Ahh BUT: the bad news is; it's only collected by WBC on behalf of the Government, so it doesn't get spent on Warrington services.

[Paul Kennedy]

Yep

 

So in laymans term.... what should a small business actually pay each month to WBC in business rates if they meet all the critera and for example their rateable value is ?7800 ??

 

Answers on a postcard please to WBC or better still on here

 

?244 per month if you have registered for small business rates relief.

 

Small business rate relief is not applied to your bill automatically. You must register with your local authority to receive it.

[Dizzy]

Thanks for that Paul you are obviously very good with figures

 

The amount you say is a LOT lower than the current charge of around ?370 a month. Infact it has always been well over the ?300 mark. Can it be backdated and of so for how long

 

PS Please can you tell me how you actually worked it out so I can sleep tonight

[Paul Kennedy]

Sorry, guess you had a sleepless night, I've only just seen your post.

 

Firstly I think that you have missed the deadline for backdating relief for the current year.....maybe best to give WBC a call. As far as I understand it, it cannot be backdated for prior years, again WBC will tell you.

 

Using your example:

 

7,800 x .481 (business rate multiplier for 09/10) = 3,752

 

Now between a business rateable value of 5,000 & 10,000 there is a reduction of 50% less 1% per ?100 so in the case of 7,800 that would be 28%, which gives 50 -28 = 22% discount

 

Therefore the amount payable will be ?3,752 -22% = ?2,927 per year = ?244 per month.

 

So I'm not sure why the figure you pay is so much higher as even without relief it should only be ?313 (3752/12)

[Dizzy]

Many thanks Paul I thought the amount seemed to be wrong even without the SBRR reflief. From what you say it may have been last year too

 

As for missing the deadline for backdating relief for this year....... I don't believe in deadlines when something is wrong through no fault of the payee, nor do I believe in deadlines for past payments which may/may not be wrong for the very same reasons

 

Thanks again Paul