EXCLUSIVE NEWS - TAMESIDE COUNCIL TAX BOMBSHELL – UP 3.5%

Nothing surprises me anymore; this Labour run council is unfit for purpose.

While hundreds of councils up and down the country continue to freeze their council tax, Tameside have decided to put it up by a massive 3.5%!

 

So, while the likes of Cllr John Taylor continually tell us that we are being supposedly "hammered" by the Tory led Coalition, the ever so helpful Labour councillors, have decided to increase our council tax by 3.5%. This can only be described in these harsh economic times as “morally” unacceptable.

So, here we are being dictated to by a socialist council who, refuse to reduce the number of career councillors, whilst wringing their hands and crying crocodile tears when they lay off front line workers, sell-off car parks, shut libraries, toilets and close day care centres,  despite having more than £41million sitting in its reserve fund.

"JUST PAY UP, OK!"

If these reserves are not intended to ensure councils can react to unforeseen situations like tackling the country’s unprecedented level of debt, what exactly are they intended for?

But of course that’s typical of Labour, in the current difficult circumstances when everyone is finding it hard to make ends meet, our wonderful, caring council have unanimously decided to forgo the Governments one off £1.5million inducement grant to freeze council taxes for another two years and have chosen instead to add yet another financial burden to hard pressed families. 

Older residents will know that from from 1997, when Labour came to power, the average council tax bill virtually  doubled from £688 a year for a Band D home to over £1,320.and continued to rise year on year until the 2010 election, when the coalition immediately froze it at its current level!

Earlier this year, we were told by the Local Government Minister, Eric Pickles that “If local authorities want to hike council tax they should have the courage to put any rise to the electorate.”

Well, obviously Tameside bosses, who only show us contempt, do not possess that courage or else they would have put their case to us in a referendum. It was understood that a rise above the 2% level should trigger a local referendum, but Tameside appear to have totally ignored it!

We must now lobby all our local councillors and demand they abide by the Government ruling that any rise over 2% must be approved by the public in a referendum. Until then perhaps we should refuse to pay it!

There's a very apt saying which suddenly springs to mind:

"Councillor, please don't piss up my back and then tell me its raining!"