Dartmouth 

 
From Europe by Rail

 

Hotels do indeed pay for energy and water used, at the "going rate" At present they do not pay the capital costs involved in meeting the increased demand (new reservoirs, and treatment works, new substations and generating plant)

 

Agreed.  I have been trying to quantify hotel rooms / overnight guests in Wiltshire and it's not an easy piece of research!.   

https://www.visitwiltshire.co.uk/dbimgs/Press%20Release%20-%20ACCOMODATION%20REPORT%20HAS%20REVEALED%20SALISBURYS%20POTENTIAL%20FOR%20FUTURE%20INVESTMENT%20AND%20DEVELOPMENT%20-%20FINAL(1).pdf


Out of date, and just one part of the county. A 20 year old study suggests that 10% are business visitors.

6500 bed spaces, 75% occupancy, suggests about 1.5 to 1.7 million taxable overnight stays per annum within 10 miles of Salisbury a decade ago ...

>>> 6500 * .75 * .9 * 365
1601437.5

Let's call that £3 million income, with goodness only knows what proportion of that being spent on the actual collection.

Interesting to note figures of about 1.3 million per annum visiting Stonehenge - goodness only knows what proportion of them are day visitors to the county, what proportion stay locally, and indeed how many are local residents in the council tax catchment anyway.

All these thoughts ignore age issues - and on a recent visit to Stonehenge, I noted a high proportion of school / college groups ...

 
The general idea in France, at least, is specifically to cover some of the extra costs incurred by the local authority - roads and parking, cleaning and rubbish bins, and the like. Otherwise these are paid by the residents, only a few of whom make money off those visitors which could be taxed as an alternative.

That's not all their costs for visitors, and in some places day trippers (who don't pay it) are more important. But that's just a further problem, as yet unsolved. The visitor tax is seen as addressing part of the shortfall, at least.

However, I don't think that is why it's found favour with Andy and his supporters in Andyland (Andymia?). I think its real attraction as something to do at once is that it is (and can only really be) a local tax, paid to local government. And devolution is one of his Big Ideas, perhaps the biggest, and needs a lot of locally raised government revenue.

Since the plan requires local taxes, set and controlled locally, a block grant doesn't have the right look and feel. Shifting existing taxes over (or down) to local level will not be easy, involving undoing current arrangements to remake them, and replacing lost revenu in some cases.

So a new tax is more attractive, even if it is quite small in revenue terms and so makes almost no contribution to the financial autonomy of local governments. The idea's the thing! But I don't think the need or desire to tax visitors because they must have money to be taxed is important here.

 
It was, down to one Oxford - London service per hour which was usually running late and no stopping services all day between Didcot and Oxford.

 
It's widely used abroad, providing it is used to recoup some of the costs associated with discretionary expenditure on leisure stays I'm fine. It must however be reclaimable by business travellers and contractors engaged on construction and maintenance. Additionally virtually all of the take must go to the relevant local authority and not added to central funds and distributed by central government. There are many documented cases of visitors to Cornwall staying in self catering accomodation arriving with their food and not contributing in any way to the area of their holiday. If these are captured it'll be a good thing.

 
Makes sense considering the numbers over 18 in full time education.

 
AFAICS from Open Train Times, the stationary 1J93 18:08 Paddington to Frome has been blocking the DM at Twyford for over 20 minutes with a queue of trains behind it.

EDIT: now moving with 28 minutes delay and with three other trains closely following behind.

 
17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury due 20:06

17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury due 20:06 will be terminated at Swindon.

It will no longer call at Stonehouse, Stroud, Kemble, Chippenham, Melksham, Trowbridge, Westbury, Dilton Marsh, Warminster and Salisbury.

It is being delayed at Gloucester.
This is due to a broken down train.

 
Looks like quite a mess this evening.

 

Update "Disruption is expected until the end of the day"

 
I probably have too much time on my hands, but came across this combination of words for the steam railway ticket office in Kingswear - vocal.stooping.paramedic

Anyone else found some standout ones?

 
We allowed half an hour to change in Frankfurt - but I don't think our connection will have been held.

 
I have posted further comment - as both a hotel user and a past hotel operator - at https://grahamellis.uk/blog2041.html

 

Hotels already pay for the water and energy they use.  Roads, car parks, public transport more arguable.

 
I would support this tax, provided that it is confined to limited areas that are very popular with visitors and therefore prone to overcrowding.
Hotels use a lot of water and energy and should contribute to the capital costs of providing this.
Similar arguments apply to roads, car parks, and public transport.

 
Alterations to services between Reading and London Paddington

Due to a points failure between Reading and London Paddington fewer trains are able to run.
Train services running to and from these stations may be delayed or revised. Disruption is expected until 16:15 04/08.

Customer Advice
Owing to a problem with a section of track near London Paddington, fewer trains are able to operate between London Paddington and Reading.

 
Thanks for the info on the service revival's early years. I seem to recall two weekday services of an evening that allowed a quick circular trip via Melksham from Bath for anyone needing a fix of train travel after work - with enough time to leap off at Melksham for a bite to eat before heading back for the second train. Thinking back to the early 2000s it would be pretty good, today, to have some of the train services that Bath had then** but it's really good that Melksham now has a somewhat more rounded timetable than it did at that time.

Mark

** Full disclosure: heading for the line to Buxton in the nineties we suddenly realised that there was a weekday loco-and-carriages service from Reading to Manchester that, on the way, at 8:30 in the morning, called at Oldfield Park, fitting our ideal travel itinerary like a glove.

 
Tuesday 4th August


RTT shows 1G01 0632 Swindon to Worcester Shrub Hill as being cancelled "due to the planned train being replaced with a slower train (MS)."

 
It's not as if our politicos don't already have their hands deep enough into our pockets and then find ways to waste what they've extracted

 
Great video ...the moment at the end 26 mins in or thereabouts made me think of Dr McCoy's ' It's life Jim, but not as we know it !', Absolutely fascinating from start to finish.

 
That's a definite 'No' from me. I wouldn't object quite so much if the government wasn't wasting lots of our money elsewhere.

 

A regressive tax is structured so that individuals with lower incomes pay a higher percentage of their income in taxes compared to higher-income individuals, even if the absolute amount paid is the same. It does not consider the person's ability to pay.

This tax is a textbook example of a regressive tax.

 
Cancellations to services between Oxford and Didcot Parkway

Due to a tree blocking the railway between Oxford and Didcot Parkway the line towards Didcot Parkway is blocked.
Train services running through these stations may be cancelled, delayed or revised. Disruption is expected until the end of the day.

 
From the BBC

 

Yep, there's only one railway station in Melksham and a hundred bus stops - and with no buses at all calling at the stop at the station - so (and it applies to Lisa and me to) that final leg from the longer distance railway journey to our  front door can be surprisingly efficient changing to a bus in a neighbouring town.   

 
Yep - too late for the 1748 bus so had to be the 1818, which was about 5 mins late. But thanks to the bus stop at the other end being closer to home than the train station I was only about 25 mins later than usual, and less sweaty Delay-repay will cover the bus fare.

 
There's also a monorail in at least one of the national grid electricity tunnels under London. The main reasons are the distance and lack of access shafts, and saving of time. There is an IanVisits article about this.


One thing I have never found out is whether this has any use for pulling new cables into place when a cable is to be added or replaced. And I expect there are similar things hiding in other big bits of linear infrastructure.

 
I would object strongly; it feels very unwelcoming. When I spend time somewhere I'm already contributing to the local economy and employment whenever I spend any money. I will almost certainly be spending more per day on many things (eating out, entertainment, attractions) than the locals do.  Not my fault if the current tax regime doesn't pass that on effectively, and why charge overnight visitors but not those who just come for the day, except that they are an easy target?

On a related note, my local council gives reduced car park rates to us residents.  That does make me a little uncomfortable and feels Little Britain-ish ("local car parks for local people").  Don't we want to encourage people from elsewhere to come into the borough to spend their money here and help our local economy?  It also does nothing to encourage local residents to leave their car at home and use our pretty good public transport (outer W London) or walk/cycle for those local journeys.

PS Going somewhere on holiday in the UK isn't a staycation!  For me it's a perfectly normal holiday, abroad being very much the exception as I haven't run out of UK places I want to see for the first time or return to.