n THE stand of by Elizabeth Winkfield over the council tax is something that we should all support.

Not because the lady in question is 83 years old, but because the time has come to say enough is enough

The councils in England and Wales must real;ise they have to become as highly competitive as the UK's private industry has to survive.

The difference is that private business has to swim or sink on their business acumen whereas councils perceive year-after-year that they have a captive audience where people will have to pay no matter what.

If we do not support Mrs Winkfield now in this respect we shall all have allowed the councils to just go on in their same old merry ways as before, always running slipshod over us.

But they will all have to become far more competitive and look at their consumers as a body who can say, I am not willing to pay.

That is what is so wrong with the present system.

DR DAVID HILL, Chief Executive

World Innovation Foundation,

Huddersfield.