Kingston Council recently distributed a questionnaire inviting council tax payers to tell them how they should spend next years budget.
The council tax went up 10 per cent this year, nine per cent last year and a staggering 13 per cent the year before.
Now a further increase of 11 per cent is suggested for next year to simply maintain services at their existing level. Can the council explain why these increases are so far above the rate of inflation? What is the council doing with all this money?
The council states this is not a public relations exercise. They even provide a selected list of services that might be cut if the increase in council tax is less than the required 11 per cent.
But strangely missing from the list is any mention of extra efforts to increase the efficiency in the operation of these services.
One can only deduce that a large proportion of the annual increase in tax is spent on increasing inefficiency and bureaucracy.
R M TAYLOR
Meadow Hill
New Malden
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