Taxation continues to rise

SIR – Wages rise at two per cent. Inflation rises at three per cent. And yet Hampshire Council Tax rises at six per cent!

My library services are deteriorating, my local waste dump is opening for fewer hours, my local roads are not having potholes maintained, Surestart care for children is being slashed, 25 per cent of children leaving primary school are failing Key Stage Two attainments, police are only able to respond to my home being invaded by asking for an online report.

Council workers are subject to below inflation pay increases.

Why are we receiving fewer services each year when we are having to pay more cash each year?

Not because of Roy Perry. He works hard to keep his council cost efficient.

The reason is that most of your council tax is spent on caring for the old people in Hampshire who at the end of their lives do not have the £700 per week that is needed to pay for their nursing care.

It is also spent on those children who at the beginning of their lives need an equivalent nursing care.

When I was a new doctor in the NHS in 1972 both these categories of need were cared for in NHS “geriatric units” (for example the Tom Rudd unit at Hedge End) or in NHS children institutions.

The common factor being that these were NHS units financed by Aneurin Bevans NHS.

It is time that these costs go back to the NHS in Whitehall so that local people can spend their money on local services.

Yours Sincerely,

D V RUTTER

Address withheld