Millions face higher council tax and cuts in services because the black hole in local government pensions has soared to £60 billion, the Daily Mail reports.
Figures obtained under freedom of information show councils’ pension deficits have nearly trebled thanks to the recession.
Council tax bills in April next year will depend in part on a calculation of the size of the pensions black hole, due to take place this March.

Motorists are facing the threat of higher parking fines as councils put pressure on the Government to increase penalties, the Daily Telegraph reports.
The British Parking Association that represent both local authorities and their private enforcement companies, are lobbying Sadiq Khan, a transport minister, for a “review” of charges outside London.
Currently fines they are set at £40 for minor offences such as spending too long at a meter and £70 for more serious transgressions including parking …

The number of town hall-controlled Big Brother CCTV cameras has trebled in a decade, and there are now 60,000 cameras trained on members of the public by council snoopers – one for every 1,000 people in the UK, the Daily Mail reports.
The huge increase has cost hundreds of millions of pounds, including at least £170 million in Home Office grants – although there are doubts over whether the cameras actually help catch criminals. Many images …

Political correctness idiots are in action again – this time the morons at Bradford council have renamed their Christmas event “midwinter celebration”.
Children are expected to flock to the Bolling Hall Museum in Bradford on 20th December to listen to music, watch performers and take part in craft activities at the “Midwinter Medieval Celebration”, the Daily Mail reports.
Reverend Paul Flowers, a councillor and methodist minister, said that omitting any mention of Christmas was stupid …

A single Afghan mother and her seven children are continuing to live rent-free in a £1.2 million house funded by taxpayers, more than a year after ministers pledged to throw them out, the Daily Mail reports.
Toorpaki Saindi, 36, moved into the seven-bedroom detached property in July last year and receives £170,000 a year in benefits, which includes £12,500 a month for her rent.
Ealing Council agreed to pay the £3,000 a week in private rent for …

A former asylum seeker is living in a luxurious £1.8million home fitted out with the latest mod-cons – all paid for by housing benefit, The Sun reports.
Taxpayers are forking out £1,600 a week so Somali mum Nasra Warsame, seven of her kids and her pensioner mum can lord it in central London for free.
Their pad has fixe storeys, six bedrooms – some with balconies – three sitting rooms, four bathrooms and a spacious, superbly fitted-out …

Motorists who leave their cars running on frosty mornings to warm up the engine and clear the windscreen could face being fined under anti-pollution rules this winter, the Daily Mail reports.
Drivers are being told that leaving a car idling for more than a couple of minutes wastes fuel, and they could be served with on-the-spot fines of up to £40. However motoring groups have warned that the rules should not be used to stop …

Local councils are using drivers as “cash cows” by raking in £328million a year from parking fines, the Daily Mail reports.
The Taxpayers’ Alliance study shows that councils are handing out up to £85 in fines per person – 55 authorities are earning more than £1million a year from charges. In many cases there is no guarantee that the money extracted will be spent on local transport improvements, they say.
However, the report also shows that the …

CCTV cameras are being fitted inside family homes by council “snoopers” to spy on neighbours in the street outside, the Daily Mail reports.
The £1,000 security cameras have been placed inside properties but are trained on the streets to gather evidence of anti-social behaviour. Each device is linked to a laptop computer and accessible online by police and council officials 24 hours a day.
But the trial inside two homes by Croydon council in south London has …

The wife of the Commons Speaker, Tory MP John Bercow, is running for office as a Labour candidate, the Daily Mail reports.
Sally Bercow was this week selected to battle for a place on Westminster City Council at next May’s local elections.
Bercow, 39, is one of three candidates picked to fight for St James’s Ward which is currently held by the Tories.
She was a Tory activist as a student but switched to back Labour shortly before …

Suffolk County Council were forced to scrap a new £435,000 children’s home after they discovered that the next door neighbour was a convicted rapist, the Daily Mail reports.
The council bought the five-bedroom detached property in August 2009 without realising that registered sex offender Christopher Allison lived just yards away. Former psychotherapist Allison, 67, was jailed for eight years in 2002 for two rapes and ten counts of sexual assault on vulnerable patients over a 14-year period.
He …

Town halls will today be banned by law from using anti-terror powers to spy on “bin criminals” and litter louts, the Daily Mail reports.
Home Secretary Alan Johnson says that using controversial Big Brother powers for trivial reasons is undermining faith in the surveillance regime. He will outline legislation preventing councils from using the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act unless they are probing a serious crime, which could include commercial fly-tipping or benefit fraud.
It follows a string …

London residents are to have their council tax frozen next April as Conservative town halls lead the race to offer the lowest rise in household bills in the country, The Times reports.
Many Tory councils have managed to limit tax rises only by imposing charges, privatising services or cutting jobs — a practice likely to spread if the Tories win the general election.
Hammersmith & Fulham, widely regarded as a role model for a Cameron government, will …

Watford Borough Council have banned parents from supervising their own children in public playgrounds until they have undergone criminal record checks to prove that they’re not paedophiles.
Adults have been excluded from two adventure play areas in Watford, apart from a handful of council-vetted “play rangers” who will assist youngsters, the Daily Mail reports. Parents will be forced to watch their children from outside the perimeter fence.
The council claim they are just following Government guidelines and cannot allow …

Draconian police powers designed to deprive crime barons of luxury lifestyles are being extended to councils, quangos and agencies to use against the public, The Times reports.
The right to search homes, seize cash, freeze bank accounts and confiscate property will be given to town hall officials and civilian investigators employed by organisations as diverse as Royal Mail, the Rural Payments Agency and Transport for London.
The measure, being pushed through by Home Secretary Alan Johnson comes …

Almost 10 per cent of Estonian voters cast their votes electronically in this year’s local councils’ elections, which is an absolute record in this tiny Northern European country.
104,415 people gave their votes electronically, using the country’s innovative ID-cards for voting. That is about 9.6% of the total voters in the local councils’ election.
In European Parliament election, in June this year, only 58,669 people gave their votes electronically.
Estonian electronic voting is possible thanks to the ID-cards …