West Cornwall Survey

Some of you will have received a survey from Derek Thomas, the Conservative Parliamentary candidate. I am puzzled by his expectation that Cornwall Council should freeze council tax.

As I understand it, the reason the Council had such a big hole to fill in next years budget was because the last Council, led by local Conservatives, planned for a 5% rise in your council tax bills. If the current council had gone forward with their plan, it would have been necessary to have gone to the people of Cornwall to ask them to vote ‘yes’ for the increase. After careful consideration it was thought that the people of Cornwall probably could not afford a 5% increase so would vote ‘no’. It is for that reason that the council decided to put forward a 2% increase so that we can keep as many services in tact as possible.

A freeze would mean deeper cuts.

As for his questions to local people, seems to me that he is asking people whether they would like a local version of utopia that the Conservative Chancellor has no intention of funding! I think he is insulting our intelligence!