I HAVE just received my council tax bill for the coming financial year, and I think it is outrageous that the Weston Town Council element is increasing by a massive 49 per cent

I HAVE just received my council tax bill for the coming financial year, and I think it is outrageous that the Weston Town Council element is increasing by a massive 49 per cent, and the Weston Special Expense by 18 per cent. The well-off Conservative councillors cannot understand the difficulty ordinary people have just to get by, and it is insulting for leading town councillors to dismiss this rise as insignificant. They have turned Weston Town Council from a small parish council providing good local facilities into a £1million bureaucracy. In a lot of cases, the councillors on the town council are the same people as the councillors on North Somerset Council, but on one council they say they want huge tax rises, while on the other they say they want to keep them low. It is clear what is happening: by penalising Weston residents in this way, they are shifting the incidence of taxation away from the wealthier parts of North Somerset and onto the people of Weston. The leader of North Somerset Council represents Portishead, and seven out of the eight cabinet members represent other wards outside Weston, and that is where their priority lies. RACHEL MORGAN - Bristol Road Lower, Weston