I am sure Cllr Crocker's first letter in the Cornish Times on March 3 will have shocked and angered many of Caradon's residents who have to pay a well above inflation increase in this year's Council Tax. However the true picture is more complex than Cllr Crocker has depicted.

When Cllr Crocker put forward his motion for a two per cent increase in Council Tax my understanding was that his motion was neither substantiated by detailed calculations nor an official motion of his political party, the Liberal Democrats. It wasn't even seconded. One must ask why.

On March 10 Cllr Eric Lewis, Caradon's Cabinet Leader, responded explaining part of the problem. Certainly the centralist Labour Government diktat means costly new measures to Caradon - such as social exclusion costs, travel concession costs, Best Value performance costs, etc. My own motion, for a 6% standstill budget entailing no service cuts, was seconded and supported by a handful of Members. Caradon's share of the overall Council Tax is a mere 13%.

I am amazed that Cllr Crocker advocates measures clearly not Liberal Democrat policy. Liberal Democrat controlled Councils tend to be amongst some of the highest spending Councils in the country. The real problem at Caradon is analysing the relevant costs of all the Council's services to ascertain which are not giving good value for money. Our existing leisure centres and swimming pools are already costing Council Tax payers hundreds of thousands of pounds a year and willy nilly some members seem to want to put more in place. We must consider issues such as these with more scrutiny and the facts surrounding such issues published in clear terms so Council Tax payers are fully informed.

Regarding the Knott's planning compensation claim, no compensation has been agreed. It was only Cllr Levack (St Dominick), Cllr Arundell (Liskeard North) and myself, as recorded on the Agenda, who voted against taking enforcement action until the Knott's High Court case had been decided. My motion to get all Council decisions recorded has been deferred.

Regarding Cllr Crocker's allegations over staff savings this is amusing as it is usually only myself in isolation who votes against staff increases and regrading. All my votes are recorded on the Agendas. The idea that unfairly dismissing or making senior Council Officers redundant has no cost implications for the Council is grossly naive.

I was amazed at Cllr Crocker's comments regarding Members' allowances. I put forward a motion that allowances should not even be indexed linked this year and that we should wait until the new system imposed under Labour was clarified. I am against the break in link between attendance and pay. I would absolutely not vote for a 400% increase in allowances. The new system replaces TWO allowances, the basic allowance of £372 per annum and the attendance allowance for each meeting set currently at £17.67 per meeting. The £1,700 reflects a standstill budgetary position as compared with last year's Councillor costs.

Conservative policy is to streamline the Committee system to cut costs whilst allowing all Councillors to share equal power. Unfortunately we are not in government and have no option but to follow this flawed Cabinet system. I would also respectfully suggest interested residents check the House of Commons Hansard Reports where they will see that in most instances the Liberal Democrat party supports Labour policy.

Cllr Dawn Austin

Liskeard South Ward

Conservative Office

Liskeard