Madam,

Over the last few weeks the 2017/2018 council tax bills have been arriving through letterboxes in this county and it will come as no surprise to your readers to hear that they have gone up again.

However, when your readers realise just how much they have gone up by in recent years, they may gulp and start asking questions.

Over the course of the Plaid-led administration, since 2012, the council tax bill for an average Band D house has increased by 18 per cent (from £1,169 to £1,383).

Because council tax is made up of three elements (the county council, the community councils and the Dyfed-Powys Police) it is a little unfair to compare the whole thing (as Ceredigion has no control over the last two elements), but the fact that the core part of the council tax has increased by 24 per cent over the same period (£942 to £1,169) does, and should, raise a few eyebrows.

And, as if matters couldn’t get any worse, the residents of Ceredigion are paying £101 more a year than if the council tax increased by wage inflation each year and £130 more a year than if it increased by CPI inflation, and yet each year the council pleads poverty as a reason to increase the council tax.

And in case people believe I am making these numbers up, they can all be verified by visiting Ceredigion’s website and the website of the Office of National Statistics.

If I am lucky enough to be elected to the county council in the Llansantffraed ward, when it comes to the next council tax increase I will stand up and say, very politely, “Mr chairman, I cannot, as the member of a ward which has a quarter of its population receiving a pension, who have seen little if any increase in their savings for the past decade, see them inflicted with such an increase, and therefore will have to vote against. However, I would like to make a suggestion that would permit me to vote for such a proposal, namely how about we give up some of our perks? For instance, it is really necessary for each council member to have an iPad? What’s wrong with a regular tablet? After all it would allow the council to gain an extra £26,418 by selling the existing ones and buying new cheaper versions which could be used to help fund something!”

Yours etc,

Peter James Harry Jones Hayfield, National Health Action Party candidate for Llansantffraed ward, Bridge Street, Llanon.

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