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Opinion : Let’s have more than a sandwich on the Council Tax menu

| February 27, 2015

Ivor-2014-02-16-Bench-In-Parish-Churchyard

Regular readers will know that yours truly is unhappy at the high level of Council Tax I pay for the services I get in return.

There was some good news recently after councillors in Wycombe voted to freeze the local councils share of the council tax for 2015-2016.

For the fifth year in a row the people of Wycombe will not see an increase in the amount they pay for the local councils portion of the Council Tax.

I’m sure most people will say this is a good thing, indeed your humble servant also thinks it’s good that we don’t have to pay more. However to put things in context inflation is running close to an all time low.

It’s highly likely in the next few months that we will see negative inflation which means that effectively the Council Tax will actually increase in real terms.

From April 2015 the average Band D property in the Wycombe District will continue to pay £2.44 a week for district council services, this is equivalent to £126.99 per year.

According to the Council website £2.44 is about the same cost as the average pre-packed sandwich.

Of course you had better not eat too many pre-packed sandwiches or your black bin will soon become full and with fortnightly collections you may have problems getting rid of all your refuse.

The amount of money yours truly pays in Council Tax may not have risen but as with the example of the bins the services my good self gets in return are less than in yesteryear.

Of course there are many organisations each taking their share of the Council Tax and the owner of a Band D property actually receive a total Council Tax bill of far more than £126.99 a year.

It pains me to say this but I would rather pay a bit more and have my black bin emptied every week.

Why can’t we have a ‘menu driven’ pricing structure so we can purchase extra services if we so wish?

Rather than paying the council the cost of a sandwich I would rather buy a sandwich together with a drink and have my black bin emptied more often.

What do you think?

*My next blog will be published on Tuesday evening around 8pm here on the WycombeToday.com website.

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