I sometimes wonder why we part with our hard-earned cash and hand it over to persons mostly unknown to us to spend in a manner they deem appropriate.

Unfortunately, we have no option but to hand over our money as this age-old system is known as tax and is sometimes confiscated before we have a chance to put it in our pockets.

On the whole, I believe the tax system works, and no doubt the majority of taxpayers are given the kind of services expected from custodians of these taxes.

The concerns I have is that the system, over a period of time, has now developed serious flaws.

To my mind, the greatest flaw has been the abuse of power, to an almost despotic proportion, by the decisions handed down to Colchester Council and the people of Colchester from the mandarins based at County Hall, Chelmsford.

If ever there was a case for Colchester becoming a unitary authority, Lord Hanningfield and his partisans have shown beyond any doubt that Colchester should no longer be manipulated by Chelmsford.

In the article “Forwardthinking council’s historic £5.4b IBM deal” (Gazette, Tuesday) it was stated Lord Hanningfield personally negotiated this £5.4billion deal.

I obviously have (except for the staggering amount of taxpayers’ money involved) little knowledge what this deal entails and, therefore, cannot comment further on the matter.

On the other hand, what we do know about Lord Hanningfield’s deal-making skills became apparent with his Schools Reorganisation Programme and the shambles he made of that.

The £130million which was at stake with the schools fiasco now seems like chicken feed compared with the £5.4billion entrusted to Lord Hanningfield’s negotiating skills!

It is little wonder that I am now a despairing Colchester citizen.

Colid Mudie
Mersea Road
Colchester