Friday 22 August 2008


TaxPayers' Alliance Bulletin - 22nd August 2008
 
Councils get wheely cheeky
 
I suppose that given the guile regularly displayed by councils in thinking up new ways to short-change taxpayers, nothing should come as a surprise any more, but one local authority really took the biscuit this week. Rushmoor Borough Council in Hampshire tried to make local residents accept a move to fortnightly bin collections. As you'd expect, their local residents rejected the scheme as a service cut which was an insult to people paying record levels of tax. Undeterred and apparently dead set on ripping people off the council decided to spend £750,000 on halving the size of people's bins instead.
 
This is an all too typical example of a council who have forgotten that they are meant to serve the people, not force and coerce them into doing what the councillors and council officers want. The sad reality is that there are fewer and fewer councils who are willing to take No as meaning No if they think there might be a way they can trick their way into getting their way. With taxes soaring, services being cut and councils turning a deaf ear to taxpayers' wishes it's no wonder that incidents like this one where the brave families of Birks Road in Huddersfield fought back for their right to get a decent service by barricading a bin lorry in to their street are becoming more and more common.
 
You make the news
 
You'll probably have notice that stories like those above have been becoming more and more common and gaining huge amounts of media attention lately. The TPA is often called on to comment on such travesties, and we also regularly publicise them when they come to our attention - and you can help us keep the pressure up on councils who are dodging their responsibilities. If your council are giving you smaller bins, less service or a bad deal, let us know and we'll see if we can get it into the media. If you keep quiet and don't speak up they'll carry on getting away with it - so email me at mark.wallace@taxpayersalliance.com and put them to shame!

Family wanted to star in TV tax documentary!
 
ITV's Tonight with Trevor MacDonald have got in touch to ask if any of our supporters might be interested in taking part in a documentary on stealth taxes and the impact of taxes on ordinary families. Zoe Sale, the Assistant Producer who has been in touch with us has askedfor ...."a family with a couple of kids who are happy to be filmed going about their day to day life so we can work out how much tax they pay.  It would be useful if they had some interest in taxation or felt particularly strongly about the tax system in the UK.  We’d like them to have a household income of £25 to £30 thousand a year – be drivers, enjoy the occasional drink and have some outside interests i.e. a football team, play cricket, amateur dramatics etc. Finally it would be very useful for us logistically if they lived near London or in the south.  We are looking to film around the 12/13 September so it would be good if they weren’t on holiday on those dates."

Do you fit the bill? Would you like to strike a blow for the low tax cause and appear on one of Britain's most prominent current affairs programmes? If so, please either email Zoe Sale at zoe.sale@itv.com or phone her on 0207156 6033 or 0794 425 4798. If you've got any reservations or questions I'm sure she'd be happy to discuss the details of their plans with you. Do let me know at mark.wallace@taxpayersalliance.com if you go for it and if you're accepted - we'd love to get some TPA supporters on the show and it'd be great to hear how you get on.
 
 

Posted by Britannia Radio at 19:15