Council tax is getting out of hand (From Warrington Guardian)

Council tax is getting out of hand

SINCE 1997 the Council Tax in Crewe and Nantwich has increased by a gigantic 68 per cent, or seven times the rate of inflation.

A Band D Council taxpayer is now paying £9 per week more than they were paying in 1997.

If the Labour, Liberal Democrat and Independent Councillors continue with their policy of putting the Council Tax up by twice the rate of inflation, local people will have to dig ever deeper, to feed the municipal monster that is eating into their flagging finances.

Because the Council Tax has so outstripped the rise in pensions and wages, local people are increasingly hard pressed. For example, a single pensioner in a Band D property was paying a quarter of his/her state pension on the Council Tax in 1997.

Local residents just cannot afford to pay these huge increases in the Council Tax.

This year workers, pensioners and those on benefits can only expect, at best, their income to increase in line with inflation.

Council Tax increases at twice the rate of inflation inevitably mean that local people see a higher and higher proportion of their income being eaten up by the Council Tax.

Labour Councillors simply can't go on milking residents in this way and making them progressively poorer.

Cllr Brian Silvester

Leader of the borough Conservative Group.