I READ the articles in the Advertiser/Messenger on February 14 about Bromsgrove District Council with increasing incredulity.
Old folk, householders, council tenants, motorists, charity groups and concessionary fare passholders are all under the cosh because of the incompetence of the Tory council to manage its affairs, to the extent that it faces the prospect of the district auditor taking over the running of the council.
The pathetic excuse by the leader of the council that it has only had a £22,000 increase beggars belief.
Between 1995 and 1997, when a Labour administration was in control of Bromsgrove, we had a decrease from the then Tory Government in rate support grant.
We faced up to that challenge by a complete restructuring of the budget, making savings of £1m out of a budget of £7m without any compulsory redundancies or lowering the standards in front-line services.
By contrast it gave us the wherewithal to increase pensioners' concessionary fares to 100 per cent which is now under threat from his council despite his promise to the contrary at the elections in 1999.
Trevor Porter,
Crabtree Lane,
Bromsgrove.
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