May 1st is the day I have to start paying 2003/2004 council tax (I overpaid last year so no April payment). It's gone up by 15% to £1671.75, which is almost enough to make me join the Conservative Party, except for the fact that I remember all too well the mess they made of local government finance each time I buy anything with VAT on.
To be fair to Camden, they are the 'Council of the year', so I suppose they need a lot of money. And they collect the bins three times a week. And they've only put it up by about 10%.
But what about the Greater London Authority? They've hiked their share of the bill by about 1000%, and I have no idea why. I thought the congestion charge was raking in money. Or is that different?
All in all I think this sums up the problem with local government finance -- I'll grumble for a few weeks, then set up a direct debit and forget about it when the elections come.
posted by Matthew @ 4/27/2003 07:47:00 PM
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