A YEAR ago I wrote to you to say that my Council Tax had increased by £87 from the previous year.

I have just had my bill for 2019/20 and it has now increased by another £110. So in two years it has risen by £197.

When I asked last year if anybody could explain to me where all this extra money was being spent the following week you printed a patronising reply from some councillor/official (not sure which) but I do remember they had a very impressive title, telling me that if I read the accompanying leaflet then all would be revealed.

Mind you this year I could not read it as I never had one and also for some reason the bill was addressed to my wife (maybe it’s time for me to cut and run).

Well I must admit I do not read the leaflet (when I get one) word for word usually just quickly scanning through it but my guess is that I am like most people and am mostly interested in the figure at the bottom of the page telling me how much money is being taken (whoops, nearly said extorted) from me this year for even fewer services.

So once again I ask where is my money going? The roads are still full of potholes, rubbish is still collected fortnightly but I suppose we are lucky compared to some who get theirs collected every three or four weeks.

Everything is being cut back but still we pay more.

The police are non-existent, although I was in a well-known supermarket car park in Lydney the other day when a police car pulled in.

Ah, I thought, perhaps they are going to walk around the town a bit, show they are still on the job.  

But no, they did some shopping and drove off.

Someone I know took their dog for a walk the other day when they got back their house had been burgled.

The police were not interested, just giving a crime number. What happened to proper policing I ask?

Also with houses being built all over the Forest what happens to all the extra Council Tax that is raised from them?

As I said last year, I understand that we have to pay Council Tax but yet again we are being asked to pay more for less.

The way things are going I will being paying best part of £3,000 a year for nothing in a few years time.

– Roger Wade, Viney Hill.