Can littering affect house prices?

litterApparently the Scottish Government thinks so and has totted up the total to a bewildering £25 million. Wow! I wonder what methodology was used and what the confidence interval is? +/- £15 million? 1

We want our National Litter Strategy to achieve a cleaner, safer environment for people who live in and visit Scotland – where littering is no longer acceptable. The strategy we are consulting on is a package of measures to encourage people not to litter or flytip.

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  1. A final significant area looked at for this study was the potential for litter to impact house prices. Taking a low end estimate of the possible effect of litter on house prices (where it can affect both the valuer’s and buyer’s perception), and assuming this might apply to just 1% of Scotland’s housing stock, still gave a very significant cumulative figure of £100 million. The Eunomia research team believes this figure should be treated with caution in the Scottish context. However, even if the impact on Scottish house prices is a fraction of the initial estimate, it would still be a figure counted in millions. ↵

Battling to save Britain’s high streets

We're a TAG! memberThroughout July to mark Independent Retailer Month some shops are offering discounts, others running competitions and still more putting on live music in a bid to get mre custom.

But nothing here in Dunbar: Independent Retailer Month Events.

A month of events could have been used to raise awareness, but it looks like few took this opportunity seriously, or simply lacked the time and resources to make something happen during what has to be Scotland’s favourite month to take time off.  Trades weeks have to be a major cost to Scotland’s economy, just like Bank Holidays and those interminably long school holidays and associated complicated arrangements, which so frustrate those with children at school in city and country.

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Are the police shutting up shop?

Unprecedented financial challenges are facing all public authorities and the police are not immune.  There is a continuing requirement to find savings while providing best value for public services.

So what will this mean for community based policing?

The Chief Constable has apparently commissioned a review of counter services provided by police stations to determine a) best opening times b) the range of services provided.

Thinking about this for no more than ten minutes, I didn’t realise that the police station even had “opening times” and that it ran like more a 24/7 public service (which others should emulate), for crime and police reportable incidents occur somewhat unpredictably and there is always a PC boiling up a brew on TV. What is the range of services they provide at counters? Surely 80% of the population or is that 90% has little to do with the police from one decade to the other and crime and its reporting is probably more predictable in this day and age of data.

Apparently there is a decrease in visitors at the public counters at police stations all over  Scotland.  So the question is how to design the best fit for an area? I’m not sure where to start, but some stats, costs and possible savings would be a good place to begin with!

Then we can be slightly more reassured that this will not impact on operational police resources deployed and that the public service is not being eroded.

 

 

Free Parking!

Not long ago at a Community and Police Partnership meeting Peter Forsyth intimated that decriminalising parking offences was back on the agenda since Police Scotland had been set up. The rationale is not driven by the illogicality of parking being still a (quasi?) criminal offence, but by the opportunity to improve specialist policing and supporting local policing in local communities.  The announcement states that the new police service will be redesigned to meet current priorities and in light of a challenging budget to remain efficiently  structured:

With the transition to Police Scotland, it is imperative that we critically examine all our processes to ensure that we are making the best use of our resources to focus on keeping people safe.

Decode that and you get the ring of “efficiency savings” in your ears.

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