Unfortunately I threw out my collection of Bexley council’s magazines a
few months before first publishing this website but my letter file reveals that early in 2004, councillor Ball,
then Labour leader of the council had said in its leader pages, that a council tax rise
four times above the then rate of inflation and above the cap being discussed in
government was in his words “reasonable”. The previous year councillor Ball had
imposed a rise of 17·5% and another inflation busting rise didn’t look
reasonable to me. I told him so, additionally pointing out that in 2003 he had
used the magazine to tell us that more spending was essential.
The response was less than friendly. I had, possibly deliberately, in my
initial general enquiry to the council’s contact centre omitted the Mr. or
Councillor that should have preceded his name and managed to slip in the words
‘profligate’ and ‘spendthrift’, and Mr. Ball said he objected to my tone.
He blamed his profligacy and spendthrift tendencies on land fill taxes (an E.U.
imposition enthusiastically endorsed by the Labour government) and road and
pavements which “to fully repair them all at current spending levels will take
30 years”. He claimed that he received a lot of correspondence encouraging “more
money in this area” and that that justified his extra spending. He then went on to say how
he was planning to allow the council tax to be spread over 12 months instead of
ten. (I wonder what happened to that idea?) Then rounded things off by bleating
about having to pay the tax increase himself and claiming to be able to raise
his salary by 40% if he returned to work outside the council. My understanding
is that he does work outside the council - as a school teacher.
October 2009