Tax burdened

I HAVE just received my council tax bill. It is the only bill we have no control over. We can cut down on gas, power, water and food, but there is no hedge against rising council tax.

Why are the council tax and the TV licence fee the only two taxes where non-payment is a criminal offence carrying a possible prison sentence?

Local authorities have become multi-million-pound corporations headed by chief executives with BBC- style salaries, run for the benefit of staff and the ambitions and egos of well-paid councillors.

There is very little they do that could not be done in more efficient and effective ways. Councils have lost sight of the purpose for which they were set up: to collect the rubbish and maintain the roads.

Rubbish is collected fortnightly in my area, and the roads are so potholed that it is like driving on the surface of the Moon. I can’t remember the last time the streets were swept. All I see is inefficiency and poor service.

Just look at the mess planners have made of our towns and villages. At the same time as announcing an eyewatering hike in the council tax, the borough council is proposing to spend £70 million building a theatre.

This folly will make losses for the taxpayer for decades to come.

When the Thatcher government tried to rein in council spending by introducing the poll tax, there were riots. The idea was if everyone had to pay for council services, they’d elect councils that were more efficient, competent and less wasteful.

However, John Major’s government caved in and moved the entire burden onto a minority of the electorate — the sort of people who are least likely to take to the streets.

MARTIN ARMSTRONG,

Tunbridge Wells, Kent.