Letter: Shropshire Star (not one of mine)

Councils not really for people

The publication of the tenth year of rises in council tax, up and above the annual rate of inflation, is classed as "social justice" by egalitarian Labour politicians, but to the ever-suffering council tax payers it is a continuing stealth tax to fund local pet projects or to employ co-religionists on an epic scale.

Further still, this 84 per cent rise since 1997 is purely an English phenomenon, as the equivalent Scottish bills have risen by a mere 40 per cent. This blatant and deeply undemocratic transfer of funds from England to Scotland is another example of dogmatic socialist re-distribution of wealth.

There appears to be ever increasing numbers of nonproductive council employees with gold-plated pensions, holiday entitlements and guaranteed sickies. The only way to make serious in-roads into this excessive council spending is to sack people.

A simple internal audit of what services councils provide and what actually is needed to provide them, would surely supply a certain cut in council taxes.

How many so-called local councillors have been floated in from other areas for political purposes? Unfortunately, councils now appear to exist solely for the benefit of the people they employ, rather than for that of the people they serve.

CO Jones
Telford