On 16TH February Caradon District Council approved a budget setting a Council Tax rise for the District of eight per cent. I moved an amendment that this budget should not be adopted since an eight per cent increase on our council taxpayers is both unfair and un-necessary.

It is unfair on the low paid and unemployed who are caught in a poverty trap created by the Council Tax benefit system. It is unfair on farmers who are struggling to make ends meet in difficult times. It is unfair on everyone else since part of the reason for this increase is to pay hundreds of thousands of pounds in compensation to the knotts for the illegal actions of previous Councils acting on, the new discredited advice, of some Council Officers.

It is un-necessary since a two per cent council tax increase could be achieved without detriment to public services but still provides extra money for new services. I urged the Council to look at its bloated bureaucracy to achieve savings. I asked why it was necessary to have a Chief Executive, a Chief Executive's Assistant, an army of secretaries AND a Director of Services. I proposed that the Council make the Director of Services post redundant, which would reduce Council Tax by 2%. I questioned the wisdom of providing a new leisure centre at Torpoint, which will benefit only a tiny number of taxpayers, at great cost to the Council. Deferring the leisure centre would have saved a further 2%. Additional savings and efficiency measures could be achieved to bring the necessary increase to just 2% overall, which is in line with inflation.

My amendment was defeated and the Council accepted the Cabinets recommendation of an 8% increase in Council tax. This is nothing short of scandalous. The refusal of the Council Majority to consider radical measures is putting an intolerable strain on Council Services. The Council has some excellent staff members who are being asked to do too much with too little. It is the system that is at fault and not enough Members have the will to challenge it.

I would ask your readers to write to their District Council Member and ask them to explain why they did not support my amendment.

When the vote came for an increase in Members Basic Allowances I asked for the vote to be recorded. The names of those who voted for themselves to have a 400% rise in their Basic Allowance is recorded in the Meeting's Minutes which are a public record. The motion on Members' allowances was defeated. An amendment proposed by the Liberal Democrat Group to limit Basic Allowances to a modest inflation only increase was subsequently approved.

If your readers are outraged by what they read here why don't they do something about it? The Council meets regularly. They should come and see for themselves what their Member ISN'T doing for them. It is only by active democracy that the system can be changed.

COUNCILLOR W.R. CROCKER

Liberal Democrat

Caradon District Council

Member for Menheniot