Hole lot of trouble on Coventry roads

HAVING just paid my vehicle tax I’m wondering if, like naming a star for a contribution, I can now name my own pothole. Knowing which one to choose is a bit of a problem, there are some great ones on the A45 at Ryton or splendid ones on Crackley Lane. Closer to home , so I can view it more often, Coat of Arms Bridge Road or Brandsford Avenue would give me a good choice. It’s a pity some bright spark in a former government thought to rename Road Fund Licence to Vehicle Tax as we could have done them for gaining money under false pretences as a very small percentage of what is collected is spent on maintaining our roads. George Wall, Cannon Park, Coventry

Stop blaming austerity for council failure

OH dear, Councillor Jim O’Boyle is back on his soap box, this time educating the masses of Coventry about income and council tax and why we pay it (Letters, Feb 20). In what is probably a first, I actually agree with Cllr O’Boyle’s opening gambit in which he perceptively notes that ‘no one likes paying income tax and council tax in particular gets people’s ire’. However, what follows is the usual tack of telling us how awful those nasty Tories are in a lame attempt to justify yet another rise in our council tax. We all know times are tough but the local Labour Party’s default excuse of ‘austerity’ to justify every single bad decision it makes just won’t wash for as long as the current Labour administration continues to waste money while it cripples basic local services.

I am sure the majority of those who can afford it would happily accept another hike in their council tax if they knew it would be competently spent and bring tangible improvements to the city. Unfortunately that isn’t the case and it really is high time Cllr O’Boyle and his comrades started to look a bit closer to home before blaming national policy for their local failures.

Wasteful council spending has reached new heights of idiocy under the current Labour administration.

The cost of employing trade union staff, the creation of deputy cabinet positions, the refusal to implement cost-saving recommendations of an independent report on allowances and expenses and the continuing production of the Citivision magazine are just a few of the many outrageous examples of waste.

Yet our local leaders still plead poverty and expect citizens to pay more in council tax for less services. Matthew Batson Coundon, Coventry