MORE than 2,000 people in the Durham area have signed a petition calling for the scrapping of the council tax.

The Liberal Democrats, who control the city council, are running a national campaign, against the tax, which helps fund local services.

The party says that if it was in government it would replace the council tax, which has risen above the rate of inflation in recent years, with a local income tax.

The 2,500 signatures collected in the Durham area will be handed to the party's national leader Charles Kennedy when he visits Newcastle next week.

Council taxpayers in the city area have seen their bills rise by at least £50 while the city council is having to cut £900,000 in spending because, it says, this year's Government grants are inadequate.

Fiona Hall, the party's lead candidate for the region in the forthcoming European elections, said: "It shows that people are fed up with the council tax, which is a fundamentally unfair tax.

"It is the poorest who pay the highest proportion of their income in council tax compared to richer people."

The party says that households on lower or average incomes would be better off if a local income tax of 3.7pc were levied while richer people would pay more.