I NOTE that, once again, the council are proposing a tax increase well in excess of the rate of inflation.

I would like the members of the council to consider these facts.

For those people who are on incomes pegged to the rate of inflation, and even those working people whose wage increases are only slightly in excess of inflation, this tax represents an ever increasing burden. Consider for example a retired couple with an income of £10,000 per year, the tax currently will account for about 10 per cent of income. If their income increases with inflation at 2.5 per cent each year, and the council tax at six per cent a year, the proportion of income taken will rise to 15 per cent in 10 years, and the situation will worsen further as the years go by. Working people will fare little better.

If the citizens of Bolton are not to be gradually impoverished by this ever increasing tax, it is vital that the council takes the decision, (sooner rather than later), to peg the rate of increase to inflation.

As a previous correspondent recently pointed out, the continual building of new houses in itself provides an ever increasing source of income, and, if the council were to concentrate on providing the essential services the people of Bolton expect, dispensing with those non-jobs such as "Fairness Officer", which achieve absolutely nothing, I am sure this could be done.

David Haworth

Upper Mead

Egerton

Bolton