Ernie Clark. Hilperton Division, Wiltshire Council.

A 'full council' meeting was held at County Hall yesterday.
As pledged in my election manifesto, I voted against the proposed 4.8% increase. What I found surprising was that very few people spoke against the increase and only myself and one other councillor voted against the proposal. It would therefore seem that the Conservatives, Labour and Lib Dems were quite happy to accept this above inflation increase.

Two particular items may be of interest. Firstly, an extra £400k has been allocated for pothole repairs, pavements etc. Secondly, the Leader of the council said in her speech "I was pleased to hear the Minister for Local Government say in the House last week that Wiltshire's Unitary Council could be the flagship for councils across the country. I hope it will be, but it will need a fair crack of the funding whip to be so".

Excuse me Ms. Scott, but did you really mean that? I thought that you and your mostly Conservative chums had been telling us how the new unitary will save us millions of pounds a year. So how come you already seem to be relying on 'a fair crack of the funding whip' to balance your books?

When the unitary (or WCC) election comes along next year, I hope that the voters will remember this classic piece of prose from you and vote accordingly.