IN?HIS own column in the Forester on October 13 2011 Mark Harper stated that The Forest of Dean District Council had agreed to freeze council tax until 2015. In my opinion this is misleading at best as the council by its own admission has then looked for other ways to raise finance.

So far for 2012/13 we have the introduction of car park charges and a new regime for the collection and disposal of waste. The costs for these to council tax payers appear to be:

Car Parking: assuming one visit per week for the shortest payable time is 40p per week or £20 per year for 50 weeks.

Green Waste collection: Fixed charge of £26 per year.

Food waste collection: Disposable bags costing £7.96 per year.

The total cost of these three items is £53.96 in a full year. Bearing in mind that district council tax for a Band D property is £189 the £53.96 charge is an effective increase in tax of 28.6 per cent. On a smaller Band A property the additional charge is 42.8 per cent which seems to be a long way from the "fairness" that the "Cons" keep going on about.

Unlike when a shop puts up its prices we can choose to shop elsewhere we cannot just change councils without moving house.

Other than making up for their overspending in previous years and paying the costs of implementing the new regimes I look forward, with some trepidation, to seeing what the council will be spending their additional resources on.

If anyone knows of any other "stealth taxes" please let me know. I do not believe that Mark Harper and the Tory led district council should be allowed a free ride to introduce new charges at will and pretend otherwise.

– Colin Guyton UKIP Secretary Forest of Dean Branch.