Information on tax was taken from council meeting (From Gazette Series)

Information on tax was taken from council meeting

SIR - I refer to your report on the council tax last week (Gazette, December 12) which may give a misleading impression to your readers in two respects. So allow me to correct matters.

First, it is wrong to imply that the Labour Government had been reactive to recent calls for the abolition of the council tax by saying they would talk about it. In truth the Government had set up its Balance of Funding Review in partnership with the cross-party Local Government Association many months ago.

Local Labour councillors believe this review should be allowed to complete its work of considering the intricate problem of how best to finance local government in future, before commenting. It would appear that our political opponents prefer to rush to judgement without first considering the evidence.

Second, you rerun the old chestnut that Government resources are being diverted to the north of the country. Let us look at the figures, as they tell the true story. The Government is increasing its grants to English local government next year by 5.5 percent and there are, of course, local variations. The South West region overall will get the average 5.5 percent. This is more than the North East, North West, Yorkshire and Humberside or Greater London regions will receive. In addition, most of our region's education authorities will receive more than the national average of six percent. And South Gloucestershire? We will be given nearly £11million more Government grant than this year - a 7.7 percent increase.

At this Christmas season those politicians who just look for something to complain about are a reminder of Scrooge, saying "humbug" to all glad tidings.

Cllr Roger M Hutchinson, Deputy Leader of South Gloucestershire Council, Northville Road, Filton.

Editor's Note: The report was in no way misleading. It accurately noted comments made during the meeting by the Liberal Democrat group leader. As for the claim "re-running an old chestnut", this was from a Government Audit Commission report.