Zero council tax rise: The right decision?

So, no council tax rise. That was the final result of one of the most bad tempered, contrary and politically motivated displays of hubris that your pal the Skipper has ever had the misfortune to watch.

The great and the good at Cornwall Council gathered yesterday to debate whether to put up council tax by 1.97 per cent, or freeze it.

Now many out there, quite rightly perhaps, will be celebrating, after all it is not often that a bill does not go up.

However council tax pays for a lot of things, and the decision could mean hefty cuts to a raft of services, including childrens services, adult services as well as job losses and real hardship for those affected.

What rubs me up the wrong way is that some of the councillors who fought tooth and nail for a freeze recently decided to make the poorest pay more. Indeed, just moments after bleating about how people, including the very richest in Cornwall, cannot afford an increase, some were supporting a rise in council rents.

Hypocrisy does not even begin to describe their actions.

So when they arrive on your doorsteps in the days to come, harping on about all they have done to help you, remember that when it came down to the wire, self-interest and a chance to continue to feed at the taxpayer trough won against protecting the vulnerable.

Who voted for what is available at the council’s website. I cannot recommend strongly enough that you go online or call to ask how your councillor voted.

Whether the decision proves to have been the right one, only time will tell, but one thing is for sure, with an election looming, it seems to much to ask that decisions are made based on evidence of what is best for “one and all”.

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