Opinion, Watford Observer, 6 April: Watford residents paying price for Westminster and Town Hall decisions | Watford Observer
Recent decisions taken in Westminster by Labour and the Town Hall by the Liberal Democrats have substantially increased the cost of living for Watford residents.
Labour has cut the winter fuel allowance for over 11,000 local pensioners, increased taxes on jobs, and created a growth crisis that looks likely to result in more borrowing, even higher taxes and spending cuts. To add insult to injury locally, they cancelled the plans to start immediate work on a redeveloped Watford hospital.
Meanwhile we face locally one of the highest council tax bills of any borough or district in the county. Stealth taxes have been introduced and regularly increased in the form of charges for local services – such as the green waste collection – whilst the cost of things like parking have also gone up. The character of Watford as a county market town is being wrecked as over-development and the construction of more Taylor Towers make us feel more and more like we’re living in a London suburb.
The response of our elected mayor to these challenges seems to be to prioritise his search for his next job by standing for election as a county councillor. Whilst it does seem likely that his current job as mayor will be abolished by Labour’s costly local government re-organisation, it seems odd the mayor wants to go part-time already. Shouldn’t his responsibilities as mayor mean he’d have no time to be a county councillor as well?
Despite this record of taxes and failure, Labour and the Liberal Democrats want to make it worse by taking over the County Council, presumably in some form of coalition. The Conservative Herts County Council has an outstanding record, delivering value for money in providing quality local services. For the sake of Watford’s residents, we should avoid the costs of a Labour/LibDem coalition and instead build on this successful track record.
Stephen Woodard
Chairman, Watford Conservatives
