Ernie Clark. Hilperton Division, Wiltshire Council.

WWDC Council Tax for 06/07 was set yesterday evening.
The Lib Dem administration insisted on forcing through a 4.99% increase, despite WWDC receiving a far more generous settlement from central government than expected.

The original thought was, apparently, for a 7%, yes 7%, increase and so I guess that we are expected to be grateful for 'only' 4.99%. However, I have two questions to put.

The first is, why didn't they trim some of the luxuries in the proposed budget and bring the increase down to 2.5% (roughly in line with inflation)?

The second is to enquire whether the above inflation hike this year is so that for 07/08 (which happens to be a WWDC election year) the increase can be a lot smaller? No doubt we would then hear the Lib Dems crowing about how prudent they are with our money.

As someone who receives a pension from his ex-employer, I am only too aware of how tight money is for many of our more 'mature' citizens. The present administration seems to treat the elderly and frail as pawns in their rather sad 'game' of local politics. They should have done what is morally right and kept the increase down to inflation.

As an amendment to the budget I, together with three other Independent councillors, attempted to have £12,000 vired from the contingency fund and back into rural transport, play area grants and the arts. In a budget of some £13,000,000 this represents less than 0.1% and yet the Lib Dem and Labour councillors all ran scared from their 'whips' and voted it down.

What annoyed me most was the fact that two of them tried to justify their actions before voting "I'd really like to support this - but I'm not able to", whilst a third approached me after the meeting to apologise for not being able to do what she felt was right!

It is this sort of action that makes me ever more determined to keep pushing the fact that Independent councillors are the only ones that can vote for what is right, rather than how they are instructed by their party leaders. It is just a shame that many councillors appear to run scared of their group leaders rather than declaring that they have had enough of being shoved around and 'resigning the party whip' to become Independent.