After viewing the proposed 2009-10 Council Tax rates for Old Marston, shown in the Oxford Mail, I can’t help wondering why we, apparently, are to be the highest Tax Payers in Oxfordshire in Band D?

And why are we to appear grateful for only having to pay a 4.5 per cent increase instead of 4.9 per cent, when the official inflation rate has reduced to below 0.1 per cent?

Is this to finance money lost in Icelandic banks, and local public workers’ gilt-edged pensions at the expense of private schemes?

It is well known now that some local councils have been unable to supply auditors with robust financial summaries for the past eight years, so is this also to help fill black holes due to vague business dealings?

Why can councils appear to get away with what could look like financial trickery, when private companies and individuals would be bought to book by the Inland Revenue?

As a former Blairite, and therefore party to the inner workings of the political machinery, from the top down, perhaps MP Andrew Smith could educate us on these anomalies – unless he was on the front bench just to make up the numbers?

Mick Heavey

Old Marston

Oxford