COUNCIL TAX

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Once again, our elected servants in the Council House have deemed it necessary to increase our council tax way above the inflation rate. And the police precept has also risen by a massive 9.94%. Yet we continue to receive an inferior service from both of these authorities. This year, the Derbyshire fire service also decided to jump on the bandwagon and is setting its own precept for the first time. This authority, I must admit, does sterling work, but why the need to set its own precept, adding to our ever-increasing council tax bills?

It seems that the only time you see any police presence on the streets is when they are harassing the motorist, at the weekends when the bars close, and if there is a football match. Where are they at all other times? Perhaps we are paying these rises to the police because of the cost involved in policing the streets at the times the bars close. It is the council's endless endeavour to grant planning permission to anyone who wants to open a bar in the city centre which creates the problems.

Perhaps the bar and club owners should pay for the extra police when their customers spill on to the streets. Taking all this into account and finding it increasingly hard to find the money for these annual increases, but not wanting to acquire a criminal record by refusing to pay, I have decided that I will protest by the only way left to me, by becoming a "civil disobedient." In short, I am no longer going to show any civic pride, after all, councils in our city have not shown any for years.

The first action I am going to implement is to no longer recycle my newspapers under the council's "Paper Back Scheme." Also, I am no longer going to sweep my immediate area of my street clean (seeing as we no longer have it swept by the council) or remove any leaves in the autumn. I am also working out ways not to participate in the council's pending "Twin Bin Scheme", unless, of course, the council is prepared to accept a bill from me charging it for the extra storage place another bin will use and for my time and effort needed to implement the system.

But I must warn the council that my charges will, of course, increase annually way above the rate of inflation. I will not be using my right to vote in any council election. After all, it is a complete waste of time. Councillors are not interested in you once you have put them in office. Dennis H. Lockley

Council tax in Derby is set to rise by 4.53% for 2005-2006. It follows several weeks of consultation, in which councillors and the public have been asked how the council should prioritise its £270m budget. Part of the consultation involved the allocation of £700,000 in so-called public priority funding. Three-hundred Derby residents were surveyed to find out areas where they believed money should be spent. Burglary reduction came top of their priorities and the council wants to spend £100,000 on helping to achieve this.

The public priority fund would also pay for extra plants at Markeaton island (£13,000) and help a proof-of-age card scheme (£40,000). £354,000 would be spent on repairing footpaths and £25,000 on a German Christmas market trial in the Market Place. No money has been set aside in the revenue budget for funding the controversial Quad arts centre but £152,000 extra has been allocated from its capital fund for design fees. The council has also revealed that it plans to spend £1.152m in the next three years building a new library in Mickleover.

Council leader Maurice Burgess said, "This budget responds to issues of public concern and provides for improvements in the services we provide, all for the lowest council tax increase in Derby for many years." The council wants to increase its own tax precept this year by about 4.4%. Even with the police and fire authority precepts coming in at 5% each, the overall increase of 4.53% represents the lowest since Derby became a unitary authority in 1997.

Tory Philip Hickson, deputy leader of the council, said, "This is an excellent budget and demonstrates the effect of good housekeeping and an efficiently run council. It shows that low tax increases and high standards of service can be delivered." Labour group leader Chris Williamson said, "Paradoxically, the so-called 'excellent' council tax figure is really down to the good housekeeping of Labour, when we were in control, and the generous Government settlement." (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph)

Having recently read that Derby's citizens are among the best at paying their council tax, it makes me wonder what is going to happen when house prices are revalued for council tax in the year 2005. Some house prices have gone up by as much as 140% since they were last valued. According to the city council, there are eight tax bands and more than half of these properties are in band A - for properties of up to £40,000. There are no properties in Derby in this price bracket. It would be fairer for all if there was one tax band as we all get the same services from the council.

High-earning people are already taxed by way of income tax and anyone on low income can get council tax benefit and other benefits. Council tax should have nothing to do with what people are prepared to pay for the house in which they are living in. With the council employing in the region of 12,000 employees, it is time for value for money. But, apparently, you do not need qualifications to waste public money. Anon

I suppose we should not be surprised to be treated as less than capable by those purporting to run this authority. They claim at every turn, in their Focus and Connections leaflets, that they listen to us, but, repeatedly, they then take no notice of what we have to say. The fact that the council trumpets its achievement of holding the council tax to 4.53% sounds almost laudable, until one examines the fact that, once again, we are expected to support a local tax increase of about three times the rate of inflation.

Those of us who can remember the census debacle will recall that, two years ago, we were asked, by the Labour-controlled council, to, as Councillor Roberts stated, take the pain of an additional council tax payment to make up the £3m shortfall, resulting from the census error. In order to save public services, that's just what we had to do. This year the council has had more Government money than ever before, a substantial increase in real terms, plus another £3m to compensate for the correction in the census figures.

Now let me see, have I got this right? The council tax payers have stumped up £3m per year for the last two years, and are now being asked to do so again this year, despite the fact that the Government is giving the council the £3m. So, instead of giving the Derby tax payers the relief they deserve, Councillors Burgess and Hickson parade this as being in some way a triumph of financial prudence.

We should demand that, now the Government has admitted its mistake, the local authority should admit its mistake as well, and give us the £3m back, otherwise we must see it as another blatant example of the political bankruptcy of this authority. In fact, with the injection of the new money we should be looking at a council tax increase well below inflation, if not a free ride for a change. Norman Pearce