Madam,

If anyone pops into any office or building where the county council have a presence they will find a leaflet about the council tax.

The leaflet states that Ceredigion has a budget for 2019/2020 of £144 million (some £3 million more than the Standard Spending Assessment of the Welsh Government) and that in conjunction with Dyfed-Powys Police and the myriad community and town councils across the county, the council tax has had to rise this year by 7.56 per cent.

This same leaflet suggests that the cost of running the council is a net £138 million pounds (suggesting that 96 per cent of the council’s budget is spent on its running). Of this amount schools take up the lion share (47 per cent) with adult services taking the next biggest chunk (24 per cent).

On Thursday, knowing that the council was poverty stricken and had to raise council tax to meet their commitments, I went to the office in Aberystwyth and explained that my 90-year-old grandparents are eligible for a free bus pass (annual cost £630) but because they were housebound, they couldn’t actually use the buses.

I am not a pensioner but do a lot of errands for them that involves using the buses and therefore suggested that if I paid half the cost of a bus pass then I would be helping Ceredigion in their financial situation (by allowing the council to save £315) and still making sure that my grandparents had the bus pass they were entitled to.

The council rejected this idea. If they are as poverty-stricken as we have been led to believe, and have to raise council tax by nearly eight per cent, then why are they rejecting someone handing over cold hard cash to help them out?

Yours etc, Harry Hayfield, Llanrhystud.

Have your say on the local issues affecting you - email [email protected] or join in the conversation on our Facebook page