I would like to respond to the letter from Brian Robinson, deputy leader of the Forest of Dean District Council, on behalf of the Labour group. It is not worth commenting on issues regarding UKIP as they were nowhere to be seen when car parking charges were being discussed.

Councillor Robinson accuses the Labour group of a 'lack of a basic grasp of financial matters'. My response to that would be that we have been accusing the Tory Cabinet of exactly that as he refers to the fact that there has been a freeze in Council Tax for three years, just like his government claims.

However, here in the Forest during that time they have introduced pest control charges, garden refuse charges and car parking charges.

All of these are still paid for by Council Tax payers! This is the usual Tory sleight of hand. Why should I pay for schools, when I have no children going to school, or for social services and other very important services that I don't use?

It is because we live in a 21st century society whereby our taxes pay for a whole range of different services some of which I don't agree with but that is part of being a member of society which Thatcher denied existed!

The Labour group put forward a budget which would have added pennies to the Council Tax, and covered the costs of the car parking charges. This was not at 2.9 per cent as Cllr Robinson states, but 1.9 per cent and therefore would not have triggered a referendum. This is blatantly untrue and very misleading!

The Tories would privatise everything but someone still has to pay for these services. I thought the days of Nicholas Ridley 'looking forward to the day when councils met once a year to give out contracts' were far behind us, but apparently not.

– Di Martin, Labour group leader, Forest of Dean Council.