LIB DEMS

ALL the Liberal Democrat councillors on Wear Valley District Council would like to express their thanks to those who voted for them on May 3 and also thank those candidates who worked hard but weren't successful. Our thanks also to all other campaign workers. - Vince Perkins, press officer for Lib Dem Group, Wear Valley District Council.

COUNCIL TAX

AN anomaly of the council tax, is that a person living in a Band D property in Spennymoor may earn £20,000 per year.

Yet their 2007-8 charge will be £1,587 a year.

A chief executive on £150,000 could pay the same, regardless of his/her higher income. Council taxes hit the elderly.

Charges are not based on ability to pay and are leaping ahead of inflation.

THE average D band for the 2007-8 council tax for Sedgefield Borough is £1,565.86 (£30.10 a week); the average for England is now £1,142.88 (£21.97 a week). This equates to £423pa or £8.13 a week less then Sedgefield.

The Inner London averages for 2006-7 D band charges for Wandsworth £648 and Westminster £659 reveal that, just like with the Barnett Formula, the North-East is getting a raw deal. - Councillor Ben Ord (Lib Dem) Spennymoor Ward, Sedgefield council.