Why has council tax rise not been capped?

12:52pm Friday 17th March 2006

Regarding the 6.3 per cent rise in council tax, I ask what happened to the Government's warning to keep all rises below five per cent and the promise that any council that did not do so would be capped? (Has Newman kept his council tax promise, Croydon Guardian, March 8).

Wandsworth Borough Council is not increasing its council tax at all this year; all the residents that live there are only paying the money that Ken Livingstone wants to rip us off for the Olympics.

If that council can keep its expenditure so low that it does not have to increase the council tax, why can't Croydon Council do the same?

This really needs to be looked into with urgency.

We need councillors that can look after money, not spend it like confetti.

Vast amounts of money are being wasted somewhere along the way.

Why should we have to scrimp and scrape to get so little in return in Croydon?

I have voted Labour all my working life and now for the first time ever, even though I swore never to do so, I shall be voting Conservative along with a huge majority of people who are fed up with the waste of our hard-earned cash.

I blame the Labour Party and its greed for the council tax increases. We have seen very little in return.

Lodge Lane in New Addington, for instance, and the roads off it all suffer from potholes, we have become the forgotten borough' of Croydon.

Maybe it's time to withdraw from being a borough of greater London and become once again a part of Surrey.

It could work out a lot cheaper for everyone concerned, at least Red Ken would not get a penny from us.

Tony Newman had better start looking for another job because after May he will be somewhat unemployed.

Steve Caldwell
Frimley Close
New Addington

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