THE plan to hand homeowners shopping vouchers every time they're let down by their local council smacks of gimmickry.
Ministers have tasked a group of experts to hammer out ways to compensate families for poor services such as missed bin collections.
Under the scheme, free sports centre passes, cash payments or vouchers worth up to £50 to spend in high street sho
ps would be doled out.
What complete nonsense.
Firstly, it doesn't say much for the Government's assessment of the level of service provided by local authorities that they are considering such a move.
Secondly, who exactly will end up paying for these handouts? Isn't it likely to be yet another extra to be added on to the already crippling burden of hard-working taxpayers?
Instead, the Government should concentrate on ensuring council bosses maintain the highest possible standards when it comes to those who pay their wages.
We have every right to expect a consistent and efficient service in every area that falls under the auspices of our local authority.
They should forget the gimmicks and get on with making sure they deliver it.
Downs and upsEVERYWHERE you look there's talk of house prices plummeting off the charts.
The ghost of negative equity is making a reappearance as the bottom falls out of the market on a scale not seen since the early 1990s.
But if the outlook on the property front really is as grim as everyone is making out, clearly no one has told the good people of Ilkley Moor.
A property has just gone on the market in the town for the princely sum of £624,950.
What makes this one unique is the fact that it is a converted pumping station once owned by Yorkshire Water. Maybe all this talk about the property market being in the doldrums doesn't hold water after all.
A real teammateHUNDREDS of people lined the streets to say a final farewell to rugby league legend Don Fox.
The Wakefield Trinity and Featherstone Rovers hero was laid to rest in his home village of Sharlston yesterday.
His brother Peter recalled that after Don had missed the famous kick in the 1968 Challenge Cup final his first thought wasn't for himself but his team mates. "I've lost the gold medal for all my friends," a devastated Don had told him, revealing in one simple sentence the selfless sportsman he was.
History will remember Don for that missed kick against Leeds.
But those who knew him will cherish a man who achieved greatness in every sense of the word.
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