Funding local authorities needs to be prioritised ahead of tax cuts - Yorkshire Post Letters

I would rather both the main political parties, Conservative and Labour, fund local authorities services sufficiently rather than offer short term cuts in taxation which are often clawed back another way.

A good example of this is by not increasing the amount of income which can be earned tax free it puts some taxpayers who are earning over £50,000 from 20 per cent tax bracket to 40 per cent tax bracket.

Many pensioners are now having to pay more tax than before because of this.

Every year councils say that they are worse off and are having to cut front line services, but are they really accountable to residents and businesses that they serve, as only a few file the statement of accounts by the deadline by the Government of May 31.

The way the government allocates funding is surely outdated as it is predicted that the majority of local authorities will be declaring themselves bankrupt within the next three years.

Local authorities need to be more accountable to residents and businesses, and should allow residents to have a say like Whitby Town Council has done on how local budgets are spent.

Arguably local people know best the needs as long as they are given the facts and risks of certain actions.

Local authorities like the East Riding of Yorkshire Council and North Yorkshire Council hide behind a 'smoke screen' stating that if residents wanted a say on budgets that this would mean that they would have to hold a referendum, which would cost millions of pounds to fund, thus taking funding away from core services.

I have taken this up with my MP for Beverley and Holderness, Graham Stuart who said exactly this.

Why do councils need a referendum when a group of interested residents, some of which could be retired accountants and business owners, may have a better understanding of budgets than the majority of ward councillors?

What training do ward councillors have in public financial matters before they are nominated by their colleagues onto the Finance committee.

I am sure that when a council holds the majority that ward councillors are pressured to hold the party whip and vote with the majority?

The only time that we see some councillors is when there is an election year. So residents are more than likely to receive campaign leaflets through letterboxes sometime this year.

I hope that when councillors are voting in additional precept charges to cover shortfalls in funding, they will remember that the cost of living is still a problem for most families even though inflation has almost halved, according to the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.