AS council tax bills drop through the letterbox next month, council tax payers and pensioners on fixed incomes will be counting the cost. "Year on year the cost is enormous – a 120 per cent increases since 1993," declared Christine Melsom, founder of the Headley-based Is It Fair campaign, last week. Mrs Melsom admits that had council tax not increased by 15 per cent in 2003, the campaign group would never have been born that year. With many of this year's rises not quite so inflation busting as in previous years, there are claims that many councils have been tempering their bills because of the local elections in May. In Surrey, the county council's share of the tax bill has increased by 4.4 per cent, with Waverley Borough Council opting for a 3.9 per cent increase. Band D council tax payers in West Sussex will pay £1,054.84 - an increase of £49 on last year - and Hampshire County Council has increased its share of the tax cake by 4.9 per cent. Working towards what Mrs Melsom describes as "another push forward" at the end of the month, which she hopes will be supported across the country, the pensioner is fighting hard to persuade the government to cap town and parish councils. "The government issued a white paper saying they intend to give more power to parish councils, but there is no mention of any intention to cap them," said Mrs Melsom. The campaign leader, who has recently appeared on national radio and television programmes, as well as the popular Politics Show, said that the campaign, begun by her husband John, was going from strength to strength. "We now have branches all over the country, including Scotland and Wales," she continued. "This level of council tax is disastrous for most of us, and people are very angry. Younger people are trying to buy a property and the council tax has become almost like a second mortgage. It is just unacceptable." And she added that while people can put on an extra coat to keep warm and budget their outgoings, they cannot say they are not going to pay their council tax. "It is one of those bills that is unaffordable and unavoidable." Miriam Brown, a pensioner from Haslemere and campaign group member, told The Herald that she believed the whole concept of council tax as it stands was "ludicrous". "To take no account of your income is grossly unfair," said Mrs Brown. "The whole thing is completely mad. We live in a two-bedroom terrace house which is band E, but two bands higher than us are £2.5 million properties. I do feel very strongly, and we can't afford to pay it without making enormous cuts elsewhere." Another pensioner from Easebourne, who didn't want to be named, said she moved to her retirement home 10 years ago. "The first year it was just under £500, and now it's about £1,200 - it has more than doubled. "I am 65, a pensioner with arthritis, and have had to go back to work because I can't manage. I do feel that I am being priced out of my home. I feel extremely militant about it." Pensioner Terry Mullaney, from Farnham, said: "One thing is for sure is that cost of providing services is going up and we have got to apply a tourniquet to that. "Pensions and equal pay is leaking money, and we have got to find a way to pay for it that is fair across the board."
