Dear Sir,

“Connections” Should Be Called “Why Council Tax Is Skyrocketing” 

    The West Sussex County Council’s amateurish, tacky little  propaganda sheet “Connections” plopped on to my doormat a couple of weeks ago, but I resisted reading it for while for the sake of my blood pressure.

    I knew that as soon as I picked it up the reason for the outrageous level of council tax would quickly become apparent.

    “Connections” didn’t let me down.

    On page one this apparently Conservative council bragged about how it was spending £11 million on setting up 30 “family shops” across West Sussex, which duplicate services like health visitors and ante and post natal care properly delivered via the health service. The council wants to raise this to 53 “family shops” by 2011.

    Turn to page 2 and I find that the council is wasting money on the West Sussex Racist Incidents Team, a bureaucracy doing work that should rightly be done by the police. Someone called Dan Sanders, the team’s training officer, (suggesting that there will be more than one highly paid and pensioned person doing this pointless work), says ludicrously that the watchword for his team will be “if you think or feel an incident is racist – then we will treat it as racist”. That sounds like a license to justify the existence of another expensive dead-end quango. Next perhaps a Burglary Awareness Unit?

    The story does have a sensible aspect though. At the end it gives its phone number, but also suggests you can call the Sussex Police. Why not shut this Team down and leave it to the police? That’s only two pages. I won’t be reading any more because of my elevated blood pressure.

    I’m not sure how many thousands of pounds will be wasted in these pursuits, but “Connections” always reminds me that West Sussex County Council has rather an overblown view of its role. Clean the streets and the drains and mend the roads, then cut our taxes, and leave the welfare state to central government. Leave the reporting of council activities to the local newspapers which are unlikely to have axes to grind. “Why Council Tax Is Skyrocketing” is not as snappy as “Connections”, but at least it is closer to the truth.

    Yours faithfully

    Neil Winton