It isn’t a “saving” when Cornwall Council doesn’t pay, leaving the parishes to do it. Towns and parishes don’t have some of the necessary backup (admin services, health and safety officers, machinery for cutting verges,etc) so it might actually lead to increases in parish precepts which will be added to council taxes anyway.
But, the County Council will be able to claim ITS savings so that’s ok isn’t it:
East Devon Watch 
I would imagine that Cornwall (County) Council is in a similar position to Devon County Council i.e. that central government has required them to make major expenditure reductions, and like DCC they are trying to find the most appropriate ways of spreading the pain. So we should be blaming central government for not understanding the impact of these cuts (and of course the Labour Party and bankers for getting the UK into the mess that required swinging cuts to be made).
Of course, in reality Town / Parish councils will not have the money to undertake these services so they won’t get cut.
I can’t speak for other parts of Devon, but in our hamlet near Ottery St. Mary, DCC has not cut the verges for years (but I do it every so often since I have a sit-on mower). The real problem is the weeds which now grow from the kerb-stones which look awful and which in the end will cost the council far more to repair than to have kept them clear of weeds.
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The point, which our EDDC realised a couple of years ago, is that it looks good for the main Council to claim zero increase in Council Tax whilst devolving services to Town Councils. The main Councils are also capped on what they can increase each year, I believe. Our Town Council precept went up 53% (from memory) the first year EDDC did this tricky bit of service management and accounting in Sidmouth.
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I am not sure that it looks good. Most people expect to see increases in line with inflation, and when people find that their services are cut (because they haven’t taken an increase), I think that most people don’t like it. (The DCC precept went up, but the EDDC one didn’t – and I think most people understand that the DCC cuts would have been even worse if they hadn’t put them up.)
Also, since central government caps council tax increases, if you don’t raise it this year, then the increase has gone forever – you can’t have a double increase next year. So this is IMO a short-sighted approach since it could result in severe cuts in the future. And of course, if keeping the precept the same results in significant deterioration in infrastructure then this is a double whammy because there is no money in future years to repair it. How short sighted is that????
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Paul
I entirely agree with your comments.
My main point though was that the District Council realised they could get round the Council Tax cap by devolving services to the Town Council, who can then increase their precept exorbitantly to pay for the devolved services. This is a really dishonest way to manage public finances for services. Do they think the public won’t notice? This is primarily to protect the EDDC Council from criticism for cutting services and letting the TCs take the blame for asking the public for more money.
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