New councillors-here's a question for you

[Benjamin]

You're going to have to get used to answering them so try this one for size.

Our commune completed the first phase of putting houses in the centre of the village on to mains sewerage early last year. We probably didn't even live here when the financing of the operation was agreed so we din't have a second thought about it.

In the Municpal Bulletin received earlier this year the second tranche has just been announced, again spreading out from the village centre but not very far. The financing is being funded at national and regional levels but also with a contribution of 30% from the Commune.

Now here's the question. We'll never get on to this mains sewerage system as we live too far away from the centre so why should we be paying out of Commune funds which we have contributed towards?

We have no objection to funding the new junior school dining room or providing free transport for the pupils so it's not that we simply object to helping in the Commune.

Added to this we've just paid 66€ to have our fosse inspected so why shouldn't the Commune be paying that on our behalf in the same way that we're funding the sewerage scheme?

This is a fictional question byt it would be interesting if any of you want to poke your head above the parapet.  [:@]

[andyh4]

First head over the parapet Benjamin

surely it is all part of communal responsibility. 

You cite schooling, but I would add (from a real and personal perspective) street lighting (we have none in our bit of the commune), rubbish collection (we recycle to the maximum but from the communal bins I see some of our neighbours are less diligent, etc..

 

In the specifics of your case, surely there is a benefit for the commune as a whole to have a portion of the town sewage properly treated and consequently an improvement to the water in open ditches, stream and rivers as a result - an improvement that all members of the commune can enjoy.

 

(Ducks back down to await the incoming fire)

[Tony F Dordogne]

The easy answer Benjamin if that taxation isn't a way of funding these projects.  In the Uk did you use every part of the national and local services provided by government?  Isn't this a case that you would be making an indirect contribution towards something that benefitted other people in the community and not just youself so it would be almost a social contribution rather than for personal benefit - indicentally, we're in this position, we live so far outside the village we'll never go on the mains but we still indirectly contributed towards others in the village getting mains drainage. 

In the UK you might have paid your Council Tax and apart from the more obvious services (roads, police, fire etc which many people would take for granted) you may have never accessed child or elderly services as provided by the borough or used the library etc etc.  It would be impossible to disentangle who has paid what and when - more bureaucrats to sort it all out - and who has not and who benefits and who does not. The next step could be - big could tho - inhabitants saying that they only wanted to contribute to this or that part of their local services, slippery slope that one. 

[Clair]

[quote user="Benjamin"]In the Municpal Bulletin received earlier this year the second tranche has just been announced, again spreading out from the village centre but not very far. The financing is being funded at national and regional levels but also with a contribution of 30% from the Commune.

Now here's the question. We'll never get on to this mains sewerage system as we live too far away from the centre so why should we be paying out of Commune funds which we have contributed towards?[/quote]

The answer in our commune is YES! Everyone pays, even though only those living in the village centre will benefit.

[Suze01]

It depends on how your commune manages its finances.  For example our commune, during it's last mandat, has done nine major projects

in the village for which it received large %'s of subventions and only

once did it actually raise its local taxes by 1%.  If the Maire manages

the loans and repayments well then you wouldn't necessarily have a rise

in your taxes and therefore be directly 'paying' for the work for which

you won't benefit from.  Our commune (of @1000) has debts of just under

half a million with annual repayments of about €60k which is way below

the average for the region and dept for this sized town - a point which

the opposition tried to play on during the campaign and failed

miserably as we were elected yesterday on the 1st round.

We're in the same position as you re the mains drainage, 400m and uphill out of the village!

[Suze01]

The wind must be affecting our phone lines [:$]

Claire can you delete those first 2 please as I can't now.

[Val_2]

Another important factor to take into consideration is your local Station d'Epuration which may already be operating near to maximum capacity. We share our station with a much larger commune above us and and a larger one below us here on the coast and this past year has seen all three communes contribute in proportion of number of inhabitants whether on mains or septics towards the cost of the new multi-million euro works via the water and commune bills. Don't write off mains drainage completely, it is done over a matter of years and as the finances allow and we are now in our fourth tranche for this particular village and this does include some out of the way places. You may also find that out of village centre properties pay less taxes anyway.

[Benjamin]

You're a very sporting lot for taking the time to answer a hypothetical question and I hope you don't get too many awkward old cusses like our questioner.  [:D]

But, and there's always a but..................why did all of you ignore the secondary question concerning the Commune paying, or at least contributing towards, fosse inspections for those not on mains drainage?

As far as I can see many of the reasons put forward for everyone in the Commune paying for mains sewerage could equally be applied to the fosse inspections.  [6]

[Tony F Dordogne]

To me the answer about the private fosse (rather than the public drains) would be that the regulations on fosse changes/inspections have been known about and discussed for some time and depending on when you bought the house, it's something that you should have allowed for at the time of purchase if you knew it was going to happen.  And of you're a brit and have used a forum like this, you should have had the fosse regulations on your 'something to keep up with' list for future reference.

If you have been the owner longer-term, it's just part of the daily expenses for living in the country and choosing a house with a fosse - things change and there may be an expense attached.

So, to me it's no, you can't have your money back for the drains and no, we can't make a fosse contribution from the Council because if we do, some old lady wont get her meals on wheels as there are too many people whose fosses need inspecting.

[Val_2]

Another little bit of info you may wish to remember is that if you as a private property owner re-routes,blocks or touches any public fossé that runs along your border and flooding ensues (i.e. s/sol garage etc) YOU are responsible for any works carried out by the commune or privately to restore the balance and you will not receive one euro in help from the commune. We voted years ago that with all the changes/SPANC etc,the commune will not help financially towards fosse septiques that already exist and have to be upgraded, there is just not enough money in the coffers either locally or departmentally.

[andyh4]

So to the second part Benjamin - if you take my comment about street lighting in our part of the commune and extend the logic to your fosse, I should expect the commune to pay for my outside light bulb replacements and any electricty used.  Not in my lifetime I think[blink]