I HAVE recently received my tax invoice from the Forest of Dean Council. It was accompanied by a booklet explaining how this was made up along with a lot of self-praise by the various authorities concerned.

The first thing that I noticed was: Wow! "0 per cent Council Tax Rise." Great, I thought. But just a minute, what is this small box telling me?  The box in light green with small white writing which is hard to read by anyone with a slight eyesight problem tells me "This excludes parish council charges."

Researching my files I find that Forest of Dean District Council element for my D Band house has in fact increased by £5.56  for nine of the 10 payments for the financial year 12/13 (£50 more over the year) – obviously a rounding error or sleight of hand but how have they achieved this?

Looking in greater detail I notice that this has been achieved by claiming more money from parish precepts. An extra £154,000 there - approximately 50 per cent of their requirements and of course there is also the car parking charges and the bin tax that local people will have to find.  So not really a "0 per cent Council Tax Rise" then!

Then I thought – where are the parishes getting this from then? Reading on I noted that Lydney Town Council have awarded themselves a 6.1 per cent increase!  But hey! last year we had a 11.4 per cent increase for a "one off payment" due to the total mis-management in the past.  Shouldn't this have been dropped this year? So approximately another £15 a year I have to pay! Wonder what the National Audit Office would make of this?

At this stage I lost the will to live, went and had one of the last beers that I can afford to have and came to the conclusion that maybe I should just move to another area.  Maybe to an area where our employees in the councils realise that there is a world outside of their nice little offices that we pay for. 

Not Cheltenham as they tried the trick of refusing to empty bins where the lid would not close. Not Taunton in Somerset where they are charging extra for taking rubbish to the tip and at the same time complaining about the increase in fly tipping. Not Newport in South Wales which has a dead city centre due to all of the out of town hypermarkets. Maybe Malmesbury, where they have decided to stop the bin tax next year as it was costing too much to administer. Maybe South Gloucestershire, where the Cabinet has been disbanded but no, that it is still Gloucestershire where the county council seems to think that only the area to the east of the River Severn counts. Maybe I will just commit a misdemeanour and get confined to the house; I will then be excused Council Tax but could still work from home.

Maybe there is someone out there who can tell us how we can get rid of our elected employees by forcing another poll.  Maybe then we could then vote in some different ones that will be prepared to sack all council employees at and above SEO grade due to their total mis-management and replace them with people with some sort of business acumen and brains.

What about Alan Preest, can he advise?  At least he is prepared to speak out on our behalf even if other councillors did try to string him up.

Oh well I guess I just have to keep plodding on and wait for Forest of Dean District Council to collect their green bin which is taking up room in my garden due to not being used anymore.

Yours, Just fed up with it all and having to work longer.

– Fed up.