FALSE hopes and broken promises are a couple of phrases that spring to mind when writing or talking about articles I used to read a couple of years ago by Dave Watts, the Labour MP.
Mr Watts, who used to be the town's council leader, wrote about the extortionate rates of council tax we had to pay in comparison to those who resided in Conservative boroughs surrounding London. And he told what a lovely Utopia we would be in under Labour with the possibility of a much-reduced payment to cover the same services we were being so over-charged for in the previous years.
Well, all I can ask is, where's the rebate we were considered for? I now see that since Labour have been running the country the party appears to be more interested in its image than actually providing a government that earns respect.
We still have rising council tax bills, but the services we fund are not improving. And for those of us that actually pay, there seems to be no incentive to maintain regular payments. I can understand why people resist the system; after all, Scotland got away with paying the poll tax by resisting long enough.
Maybe if councillors and MPs re-thought the strategy of council tax with either a massive reduction in the total bill or a bonus scheme for non-defaulters then perhaps more people would pay with less resistance, having effect of cost reductions in chasing outstanding debts and allowing services to be improved.
Or am I writing about dream-land?
Greg Taylor, Eliza Street, Sutton.
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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