Wandsworth Labour Leader Councillor Stuart King has attacked Wandsworth Conservatives new council tax level as “an inadequate antidote to the council’s programme of stealth taxes and cuts in services. They hope that by freezing the council tax just before an election that residents will forget about all the local stealth taxes they pay, and the cuts in vital services they have endured.

Residents should not be fooled by this. After every election Wandsworth has hit residents with a double whammy of increased council tax and cuts in local services. After the 2002 elections the council increased council tax by £130 – a whopping 46%. “The Tories give with one hand only to snatch back more with the other. What they don’t collect in higher council tax, they get back in stealth taxes and cuts.” Indeed, this budget warns that £5m in cuts to services will be needed in future years, and the Conservatives’ record of cuts shows that it is services to the elderly and vulnerable that will face the brunt of those cuts.

The council’s parking stealth tax collects £21m a year in Wandsworth – amongst the highest in London, yet many residents complain that they still cannot park outside their homes and that they are unfairly targeted by parking attendants. Council tenants also fare badly, paying the second highest rents in London.

Meanwhile our school results remain below the national average, despite all the extra money the council has received from the Government. Public dissatisfaction with our dirty and unswept streets is at an all time high, and the council continues to fail local people trying to get onto the housing ladder.

This is the hidden price every one of us pays on a daily basis thanks to the council’s single-track obsession with setting the lowest council tax in London.`

Cllr. Stuart King

February 24, 2006