The bee in my bonnet Mr Lines (Letters, November 19) is very much alive and well, and is always stirred when I think about the Tendring taxpayer.

It’s quite simple, and you can tell everyone the answer, did you or did you not put up council tax two years running when, at the same time, delivering underspends to the tune of £1million a year? Yes or no will do.

One more simple question, how much, to the nearest pound will do, did councillor Bucke, your unelected finance portfolio holder, remove (in the form of waste) from our budget to prevent your needless council tax increases?

The £1million savings, you say, are 80 per cent Vat rebate and salary savings.

This is not so. We have saved over two years £1million directly from waste in the budget. The Vat rebate and salary freeze are a welcome extra.

Even our staff have understood the financial pressure coming to bear and last February, when they were being told they would be seeing a freeze in pay, you and yours were committing the Tendring taxpayer to £3.2million of extra spending with unknown revenue implications.

Rest assured Mr Lines, while there is a danger that your spendaholic tendencies could remove more money from our residents for your economy-boosting toilets, my bee will continue to buzz!

Peter Halliday
Finance portfolio holder
Tendring Council
Gorse Lane

Clacton