I WOULD like to comment with regard to the letter in the Thornbury Gazette (September 10 2015: “UKIP are at the ready”) in which Philip Winter advises readers that he is one of the four unopposed UKIP councillors after the recent Almondsbury by-election.

He fails to mention that none of the four councillors live in the parish.

He feels that parishioners should be “full of gratification” (his words) that there are now four UKIP Councillors on the council, which I, personally, very much doubt.

At the South Gloucestershire Council elections held in May this year the result for Almondsbury was as follows:

Keith Burchell (Con) 1,425 votes (duly elected)

Andy Tubb (Lib Dem) 648 votes

Caroline Sullivan (UKIP) 324 votes.

Almondsbury parish councillors have always been non-political, believing that party politics have no place when dealing with local parish matters.

In his letter Philip Winter says there will be no communism. I was not aware that the parish council had ever considered this.

He also states there will be no land developments. Almondsbury Parish Council has often informed South Gloucestershire Council of it’s objections to various planning applications and often these have been completed ignored by the district council.

He also states that there will be no ‘rate’ increases and that there will be ’massive tax’ reductions which shows how little he knows about the running of town and parish councils.

South Gloucestershire Council sets the council tax for the whole of the district and that has not risen for several years due to that authority passing more and more

responsibilities down to the town and parish councils. That action has necessitated Almondsbury Parish Council having to raise a parish precept.

Almondsbury Parish may be capital rich but it is revenue poor. This is due to low rates of interest on investments at the present time, and so any deficit in revenue expenditure has to be off-set by a parish precept. Capital investments cannot be used for revenue expenditure.

Jennifer Powell

Almondsbury