Dave Thompson MSP

ATTN: Editor, Inverness Courier

Dear Sir,

I refer to your editorial last week (18 Sep) entitled Waiting for the financial axe to fall, where you state you 'suspect few people would oppose a 1 or 2 per cent rise [in their Council Tax] to protect jobs and essential services'.

Firstly it's important to note that a 1 percent rise in Council Tax would only equate to 0.17 per cent of Highland Council's budget this year, and if the Council wanted to raise its budget by an extra 1 per cent it would actually have to raise Council Tax by 5.6 per cent in order to achieve that.

I suspect few people would support such a dramatic tax rise, especially when the Council has been able to achieve a £23 million budget increase for 2009/10 while keeping council tax frozen at 2008/09 levels (through Scottish Government special funding).

Yours sincerely,

Dave Thompson MSP
Thorfin House
Bridgend Business Park
Dingwall