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15 December 2023
Issue no. 158
ISSN 2632-3389
When did it all go wrong? In this issue of The Leveller we look at the track record of our Council for raising council tax. Did they raise enough? Are they authors of their own misfortune? The row over what happened to Somerset’s finances is intensifying. All the various parties have come out blaming each other for the fiasco which sees Somerset Council on the brink of filing a s114 notice of bankruptcy. The LibDem Leader Bill Revans blames the war in Ukraine, Brexit and the Liz Truss Budget fiasco. For the Conservatives, David Fothergill says: “It is deeply frustrating that the new administration has squandered the strong financial legacy that was handed to them after the election.” Labour’s Leigh Redman noted: “We need to find a way to rebalance, we need to build a better future for the people of Somerset and the only way to achieve that is for the next government to be Labour and that needs to be now!" As for the Greens, in a collective statement they note: “Inevitably, a blame game has begun. ….. we are now seeing Somerset Council desperately seeking to off-load properties and asking parish and town councils to relieve them of essential services like street cleaning.” What is completely lacking, is a collective sense of pulling together to keep the council solvent for the good of the county. No, actually, for the good of you dear readers, the residents and taxpayers of Somerset. Where does the buck stop? It is for us to work out whose fault it is. For the elected councillors to stop bitching at each other and join together and fix the problem. The row over where we are today, hinges to a very large extent on where we have come from. It revolves around the amount of council tax that has been raised over the years (See p26)
Mariella Frostrup in Stoke St Grgeory to proclaim a roof top revolution see p30
Queens College
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