In my recently published letter in this newspaper, regarding the large increase in the Council Tax I listed under the heading Allowances and Expenses the remuneration Cornwall County councillors had voted to pay themselves. I had thought that the increase to £6, 000 p.a. each of the 76 councillors would receive was to start from April 1 this year. This is not so.

The increase started from August 1 1999 and back-dated to April 1 1999. Councillors have been drawing these large sums I quoted for a year already. Further, they have now voted themselves percentage increases on those figures for this year.

Each of the 76 councillors will receive £6204 p.a. or £119.31 per week whether they attend Council meetings or not. This is a 3.4% increase on last year.

The Chairman or Leader of the Council will receive the £119.31 per week, plus a 3.3% increase on the special responsibility allowance, which equates to £51 per week plus £48.23 per week for being Leader. The total is £218.54 per week or £11,364 p.a.

Vice Chairman will receive the £119.31 per week plus an increase of 5% on their special responsibility allowance, which equates to £38.77 per week plus £38.54 per week for being on the Executive Committee. The total here is £196.62 per week or £10,224.24 p.a.

Currently the Council are forming another 11 committees. All with Chairman and Vice Chairman. Remember many of these councillors are on more than one committee and many are also District Councillors also receiving remuneration. I'm led to believe that Caradon District Councillors are now considering to vote themselves large increases. Great isn't it. If you are a County Councillor and a District Councillor, you can vote yourself a large increase on both Councils. Is Penwith, Restormel, North Cornwall etc doing the same? What about Parish Councillors? Are they going to try to get their snouts into the trough? There is something seriously wrong in our democratic system whereby a group can decide to increase the Council Tax by more than 10% and their own remuneration by more than 100% without consulting the electorate. We were elected, I can hear the councillors cry. I don't recall any Councillor at election time, when seeking my vote, promising to put the Council Tax up by more than 10% which is nearly 10 times higher than the national inflation rate, or telling me they intended to pay themselves as much as they liked.

Hopefully readers of this letter will challenge their local councillors, both at District and County level, asking them to justify why they increased the Council Tax by more than 10%.

Who gave them authority to pay themselves what they liked. As far as I am concerned, a 75 year old Ancient Briton, I am going to be a thorn in their side.

Frank Saunders

Liskeard