Second home sense

there have been calls to increase council tax on second homes. I recall a council chief executive facing the same dilemma decades ago.

his reasoning was that second homes were often decaying buildings that had been renovated by the new owners, thus improving the area. And though second homes attracted the same council tax as fully occupied ones, the council only had to empty their bins a few times a year. DENIS MITCHESON,

Prescot, Merseyside