I wish to congratulate councillor Oliver Cramp as the only Falmouth councillor to stand up for local people in the recent budget discussions.

Falmouth Town Council have now increased their council tax precept by 50 per cent in just two years.

In my view the increase is largely justified because it is designed to pay for a number of essential and some desirable services that Cornwall Council are no longer able to provide.

However, such a large increase in council tax should have triggered some form of public consultation, such as a public meeting, so that local people could have had their say.

It is misleading of councillor Atherton to suggest that as nobody turned up to the council budget meeting, nobody in the town objected to the increase. The proposed increase was only announced four days before the budget decision was a taken, and in the run up to Christmas, giving precious little time for anybody to get themselves organised.

We will never know if people in the town object to the rise because they were never asked. Congratulations and full marks to councillor Cramp for standing up for his constituents.

Jeff Muir,
Belmont Road, 
Falmouth