Letters: January 10, 2017

Anonymity is granted only at the discretion of the editor, who also reserves the right to edit letters.

We’re being swindled

HAVING read the brief report “Council precept decision praised” (SA December 29) I was left wondering just how many tax paying residents have rumbled “The Great Local Government Swindle.”

The leader of Wiltshire Council, Baroness Scott of Bybrook, praised the Government for allowing town and parish councils to set their own precepts following an announcement in Parliament earlier this month.

The government was previously proposing that town and parish councils should hold a referendum if they wanted to increase precepts by more than two per cent.

Baroness Scott thanked the town and parish councils for their support to ensure they can continue to set their precepts unfettered by government and said “we really appreciated their help in lobbying against this proposal which if implemented would have prevented many projects going ahead.”

This decision is obviously good news for Wiltshire Council who can now dump its responsibilities for the running of certain of its services on to the “scapegoats” who run the town and parish councils. A similar situation is equally true for Swindon Borough Council.

I believe town and parish councillors will find themselves in a Catch 22 situation. Their Unitary Authority will be able to blame them for poor delivery or non delivery of certain services.

If town and parish precepts are used to provide these services Unitary Authorities could alternatively blame them for being irresponsible and the cause of excessive council tax increases.

Wroughton Parish Council are asking parishioners to vote on paying an additional £15.78a year for a band D household, to subsidise the Wroughton library via the precept.

In addition, the parish council predicts that it will need to increase the precept demand by £8.77a year. These two sums equate to an additional 21.5 per cent increase on the precept for a band D household.

Swindon Borough Council is also distributing the precept previously paid by non parished areas to all households in Swindon. This equates to an increase of £25.45 a year for a band D household.

In addition, Swindon Borough Council is likely to increase council tax by five per cent in April - £75.85 for a Band D household. If all these increases are approved Wroughton Band D households will be paying an extra £125.85 a year.

Despite the government cap on council tax This represents an increase of more than an eight per cent on the total bill. The term “smoke and mirrors” comes to mind.

With average pay rises of little more than two per cent, and pensions increasing by a similar amount, most households will see a large chunk of any income increase syphoned off to pay for their additional council tax.

We have already seen green waste collection separated from the main council tax bill and presented as an optional extra.

Residents have not been given the full facts. As the responsibilities of town and parish councils increase it is likely that councillors will demand more allowances and expenses.

Tax payers will also have the possible additional burden of covering bills for the pensions of a growing number of parish employees. Funding additional employees who are enrolled in the Local Government Pension Scheme could prove to be an expensive long term proposition.

Unfortunately, parish councils are not always represented by the “brightest buttons in the box.”

A prime example of their of incompetent decision making is the location of the new zebra crossing in Devizes Road, Wroughton. This controversial project was supported by the parish council.

Town and parish councils have the potential to become money pits. It seems the choice could become; do you want to dig deeper and pay even more council tax or face the threat of court action against you if you don’t?

Prudent residents will need to be more careful about who they choose to represent them on town and parish councils.

K KANE

Wharf Road, Wroughton

.....

Vote for real change

WELCOME to the year of 2017. But all tax paying, hard working citizens of our island, regardless of colour religion, or creed, must make a stand regarding the political charlatans who have the enormous task of governing your country and mine.

Their multiple failures at national and local level beggar belief. Taking children in from Calais, many found to be in their late20s, and some even in their 30s. Spec Savers comes to mind at border control to say the least.

That denies genuine helpless little innocents to a better way of life in our welcoming country. , to the genuine poor and distressed .

Foreign aid is running at billions of pounds, while ex soldiers sleep on the streets and back alleys due to their emotional trauma after serving their country.

They are being sued and traumatised by lawyers who would hide under the table at a firework, never mind the horror of warfare.

Open borders to all and sundry, without proper medical or background checks.

Legal aid at taxpayers’ expense to criminals and terrorists, rapist and murderers running at millions of pounds.

Let us get this right .

Nothing is for nothing financially, attempt to buy a pint, or order a meal without money and see how far you get .Or try paying your extortionate gas , electricity and water bills without the readies. Money talks .

My fear and concern is for my children, grandchildren and great grandchildren who will have to pay the price for the financial folly of these self-interested, so-called representatives of the electorate.

We give them their power and it is not to be abused.

How much longer do we put up with this insanity of destroying our way of life and our culture, be it England, Northern Ireland, Wales or Scotland - The United Kingdom?

We must all make a firm decision regarding the future of our genes, and a harsh reality check at the next democratic choice at the ballot box, if we are to have any chance of change for the better, for our future generations.

BILL WILLIAMS

Merlin Way, Covingham, Swindon

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Heritage sold off

ON JUNE 29 last year I wrote in your letters page that there was a problem with the Milton Road swimming Baths and that the firm Greenwich Leisure had closed the small baths because they refused to spend the money to repair it and bring it up to standard.

At that time I stated that the council had a duty of care towards the building as they owned it still and GLL only had the lease.

A great deal has happened since then and all of it detrimental to the wellbeing of this historic building.

I have listened to our councillors on this subject and I think they want this building to go the same way that many others in this town have gone. they claim to be working with local groups to save it but all the evidence is to the contrary, as not one local group that I have spoken to agrees with that statement.

After listening to Coun Renard on Swindon 105.5fm last Saturday I came to the conclusion that he must be following in the footsteps of the Greeks bearing gifts (wooden horse of Troy) he says one thing while planning something else in my opinion.

I know that all councillors read this letters page so I call upon them now to stand up for the people of Swindon and help to protect what little we have left in this town in the way of history.

There are no elections looming in the next year so they may think this will all be forgotten by then but I can assure them it will not.

I will be reminding everyone of the names of those that fought to protect Swindon’s heritage and the names of those that sold it down the river.

Hopefully this newspaper will give me the right to do that a few days before election night, yes I too can be a Greek bearing gifts, only mine

I will tell the voters of Swindon the truth and let them make up their own minds what type of person they want as their councillor, someone that fights for this Town, or someone that does deals with companies to extract profit any way they can and then move on.

R CARTWRIGHT

Pinnegar Way, Covingham, Swindon

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Vote was democratic

WHAT can one possibly say to assuage the grief of sad Adam Poole who after seven months remains traumatised and in denial about the legitimacy of the vote by the British people to leave the political institution of the EU? (SA 5 Jan).

Mr Poole questions whether the vote was democratic, based on three propositions. The first that it was not really representative of the electorate as only 37 per cent of the population voted to leave.

Secondly, that a significant number of people were barred from voting, who he refers to as those ‘having most to lose’ and thirdly, the Leave campaign was based on a tissue of lies, dishonesty and deceit.

Mr Poole appears to ignore the fact that the actual number of people who voted in the EU referendum was the second highest recorded, with 72.2 per cent of eligible voters actually casting a vote.

In our system you can only provide the opportunity for an individual to cast a vote, what you can’t do is force them to place a vote, as the choice whether to vote or not is an inalienable right, and is not legislated on by the State.

I would have thought he would have been delighted that the issue of Leaving or Remaining in the EU produced such a high voter turn-out.

With regard to the vote itself, he can spin the statistics whichever way suits his argument, but there is only one figure that counts; which argument won the most votes.

Sadly for Mr Poole, his view was not the one which met with the approval of the majority and he lost.

The issue of who was eligible to vote was pored over by the Electoral Commission, Parliament and the judiciary; those who made the decision to exclude certain categories of people from voting were the very same people who were confident that the vote would be a resounding success for the Remain campaign, which suggests that ‘faux’ outrage has more to do with losing than any sense of a democratic deficit.

Finally, Mr Poole repeats the oft heard assertion that the Leave campaign was the ‘work of liars and deceivers’ - such biblical sounding outpourings, more applicable to a hell fire and brimstone style of preaching, may well garner nods of approval in certain quarters but in reality we all know that both sides of the divide used hyperbole, exaggeration and yes, outrageous claims to support their arguments. Just as politicians and campaigners do in almost every type of politically inspired election.

If we were to re-run an election based on the winners’ case being founded on mendacity, I suggest we would seldom be free from the sight of politicians vying to be thought more honest than their opponents.

The grief and distress felt by Mr Poole is simply because his side lost a vote they presumed they would win.

But here is the big question he must answer - if the vote had been 52 to 48 in favour of Remain would Mr Poole be trumpeting the result to be a victory for democracy and lambasting any attempt to thwart the will of the people?

DES MORGAN

Caraway Drive, Swindon

....

Doom-sayers wrong

READING Adam Poole’s letter on January 5 all I could think about was we have all heard your comments a 100 times or more.

It does not matter how many people voted to stay in or out if a majority was reached by a free independent referendum.

The majority was some 1.7m votes to leave and that’s what needs to happen, this green and beautiful land of ours will go it alone.

That to me is a clear majority, be it five per cent or 37 per cent who voted.

Both sides told some whoppers during the lead up to the referendum. Adam Poole has only told one side, the Remainers’ side.

According to the Prime Minister and the Chancellor at the time if we left the EU we would be doomed, with out of control inflation, interest through the roof, no food on the shelves, fuel at the pumps too expensive for mere mortals to buy, holidays abroad out of our reach and all the other countries in Europe would turn their backs on us.

Since the referendum I have had two holidays to Spain, a couple of long weekends in the UK, put on half a stone in weight over the Christmas break, driven some 12,000 miles all over the south of England for my job, managed to fuel up in many different garages with no problem, still got a roof over my head and am still doing my bits and pieces for others still here.

It seems the football has been taken away and the dummy thrown out of the pram because certain Remainers who lost the referendum want it turned over because it does not suit them

Tough, that’s not going to happen. Get with the programme, Article 50 in March.

JOHN L CROOK

Haydon Wick, Swindon

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We need Farage

REGARDING our present position it would appear totally pointless to attempt to negotiate a Brexit agreement with the EU.

Who would trust the ‘Sir Humphreys’ to do anything but prevaricate to play in to the hands of the EU negotiators?

While the EU despises the UK for voting to leave, they want to string us along to milk as much money as the can for as long as possible.

The departure from the EU must be short and sharp. Look at the progress on all fronts in just a few short months.

The FTSE is scaling record heights day by day, unemployment is falling, countries are scrabbling to agree trade deals with us,

And the ertswhile falling, but now rising, pound has done wonders for our exports.

While Mrs May is a pleasant enough person she does not appear to have the get up and go to get us out quickly.

We need the likes of Roger Farage to wield the sword to cut the Gordian knot and get us out now!

HENRY SMITH

Swindon