| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Proposed closure of Wandsworth Museum | |
| Posted by: | Malcolm Grimston | |
| Date/Time: | 26/01/07 09:57:00 |
| Let's get the figures on council tax over the four years of the last Council (2002-2006) right, shall we. The Band D tax rose by a (simple) average of 15.3% per year over the four years. The Wandsworth Council portion rose by an average of 14.3% per year, the Mayor for London's tranche by 18.5% per year. The rises for the Wandsworth portion were in 2003/4, the year that the government's stealth taxes on local councils really hit hard. Although our cash rise was around the London average, it was of course a much bigger percentage because of the low denominator. Let us leave aside the observation that, unless Councillor Belton was telling a bare-faced lie when he promised to keep council tax the lowest in the country in his election leaflets in 2002, he would have to have followed precisely the same taxation policy as we did. I have long ago given up expecting principled opposition from the local Labour Party and in any case the overwhelming election result last year shows that most local people approved of our approach over those four years. Let's instead look at the overall effect. A rise of 15.3% during a period when inflation, and therefore rises for those on fixed incomes, ran at between 2 and 3% represents an enormous burden for those living just above the benefit line. I'm on business in a Lancashire District Council at the moment and have been looking at their surveys of local people's concerns. Surprise surprise, the difficulty in paying council tax is right at the top. I much regret that we have been forced to cane local people so hard with such large rises, as I believe in letting people decide for themselves how to spend their own hard-earned money as far as is consistent with top quality services. But with the Labour government playing a long-term game of removing the fruits of Londoners' income taxes and VAT to give to its Friends in the North we have had no choice, just as we have no choice but to respond in some way to the latest £5 million chop. So, we have a choice of remaining faithful to our manifesto pledges and long-term aims of distinctively low local taxation, an aim fully shared by Cllr Belton in last year's elections when he acually promised a zero council tax rise over the next four years, or taking difficult decisions over how we deliver our priorities. Actually, I am coming to the firm view that we will end up with more people visiting the Museum exhibits when we focus the Wandsworth Town cultural resources into a single building right opposite Southside and find space in our other libraries for display of artifacts. But when finding the right way forward we have to take into account the interests of the mjaority of people in Wandsworth as well as the devotees of individual establishments like the Museum. |