City ‘rewards’ us with kick in the teeth

HEAR, hear Philip Bam (“Callous City is squeezing the life out of overburdened residents”). In response to appeals to reduce consumption of services such as water and electricity, my family and I have made significant changes to our lifestyle to play our part as responsible citizens, not only of our City, but of the planet.

By investing in a solar waterheater, LED lightbulbs and a gas hob, as well as instilling in my children an awareness of wastage, we have reduced our household electricity consumption to as little as 5 units per day. By recycling wherever possible and eliminating wastage, we have cut our water consumption to 4kl per month. In addition, we separate our refuse, subscribe to a recycling service and compost organic scraps, thereby reducing our use of the municipal refuse disposal service to a single black bag per week (which is often only halffull).

And my reward for this responsible citizenship? An overall increase of about 33% in my overall rates, water and electricity bill, that’s what. This is an unacceptable “reward” for someone who has done everything he can to reduce his burden on the City’s services. Its disappointing to read the stats presented by Philip on how our money is spent. Those of us in the private sector or who are self-employed seldom enjoy salary adjustments exceeding the CPI rate.

I hope that whoever becomes mayor of this City will focus on serving the residents, rather than warming a chair in an office without delivering anything of value. The current state of affairs is untenable.