As I recall the Tories and Plaid at various times have screamed about the unfairness of the council tax and their councils (like Gwynedd) have tried hard for a more manageable increase this year. So why would Alun Ffred Jones join the Tories in allowing a 6.7% increase ? Bizzare.
Also why should Tories and Plaid Cymru AMs in Mid and South Wales vote to impose a higher increase on the pensioners in North Wales than pensioners in their own constituencies ? Glyn Davies AM is yet to respond on this matter, while Mike Wood in Dwyfor-Meirionydd wants to criticise high taxes !
So Labour says "Old bill not Big bill" and here I am with Sue Essex AM launching our petition. I suspect we will get an enthusiastic response in Clwyd West, Aberconwy, Arfon and other seats in North Wales. I must now blog comments to Dylan Jones Evans, Alun Ffred Jones and other high spending candidates.
6 comments:
Martin
For sheer hypocrisy (which is what many voters have come to expect from Labour during the last eight years), this really is the best yet from your party.
Labour's campaign in North Wales seems in so much trouble that you are launching a campaign to stop a £3 average increase in council tax bills and you have the gall to blame the opposition parties for this when council tax bills have doubled under Labour.
Ask any council in Wales - Labour, Conservative or Plaid - and they will tell you that council taxes are increasing because of the additional burdens being passed down by the Assembly but, of course, without the necessary additional funding.
By the way, if you are going to be honest politician, why don't you state that council tax bills are not going up by 6.75% but only the police precept, which makes up only a small part of this.
Are you ready to correct your blog and any other statement to this effect or are you going to let spin get in the way of the truth?
You are misleading the public on this matter and, politics aside, I had expected better of you.
If you actually want a real example of higher taxes imposed on an unsuspecting public, then look no further than the rural rate relief scheme which your colleague Sue Essex has abolished and which will cost thousands of small firms across North Wales hundreds of pounds in additional rates in less than three weeks time.
Go around the shops of Arfon, like I have in Aberconwy, and ask them what they think of a real tax hike which will hit small businesses hard at a time when they can least afford it.
Tell them that it is your mate Sue Essex who has imposed this rate increase to pay for increased relief for businesses in the South Wales Valleys and let me know their reaction.
I see we have common ground on the council tax increease imposed on Noth Wales pensioners by the Tories !
Not at all, and if you are conscious of Conservative Policy on council tax for the Assembly, we have promised £100 to every pensioner household to address the most vulnerable in our society who have been hit by increasing bills every year.
However, the issue here remains that your statement regarding the overall increase in council tax is false and I would again ask you to correct your blog and make it absolutely clear that it is the police precept and not the council tax which has increased by 6.75% across North Wales.
Happy to confirm that the Rainbow alliance of Tories, Plaid and Liberals has increased the North wales Police Authority component of the council tax bill.
Still the same cost !, compared to Labour's reasonable attempt to control the annual increases - which have hardly been modest over recent years.
Perhaps the Tories have enough money, under the Labour government, to pay these bills, but many of Labour's pensioners won't thank your south Wales colleagues for the addiotional burden - no wonder Bourne wants to offer a £100 rebate. (but it seems some don't neeed it)
Martin,
Thanks for the link but perhaps you should tell the rest of the story.
North Wales gets much less funding from the Government than South Wales.
North Wales gets £111.25 per person, whilst South Wales £138.67. That's a difference of more than £27.
It's not even as though the extra money that South Wales receives from Labour is due to the higher cost of policing in South Wales. South Wales Police only spends £5.65 per person more than North Wales Police.
That means that, because of Labour's dodgy funding formula, North Wales has to find an extra £21 per person - which has to come from Council tax.
As the Chief Constable says, "The government's funding formula is not fit for purpose in Wales"
You seem to have scored an own goal. I hope the Baggies have more luck against Blues at the weekend.
and Edwina Hart and Sue Essex agreed to take up that case. It is not consistent to tax the pensioners of North Wales because we may have an argument with the Home Office. I am sure the pensioners are very thankful to Tories in south Wales ....
But at least the Tories are having a go at some defence- Plaid are suddenly very quiet on this issue (thequiet half of the rainbow ??)
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