I have been contacted by local residents querying stories in an Intouch  leaflet delivered by the local conservatives dated November 2010.

The banner headline proudly announces that “Test Valley will deliver a council tax freeze”. In the interests of accuracy I asked the Head of Finance at Test Valley Borough Council whether this was true. His response was as follows “Council Tax levels have to be set by Full Council, so no decision has been made yet.  The Council Tax Resolution for 2011/12 will be presented to all Members at the Council meeting on 25th February, 2011 when the decision will be made.”

While we all hope to keep council tax frozen irresponsible statements like this add nothing to reasoned debate on the subject.

The second story reports that local Tories are providing money for a new community noticeboard for Roman Way. Some funding has been provided by the local county councillor out of a devolved budget (i.e. your tax money) the rest is coming from contributions made by local residents, councillors, the community association and Testway Housing. To claim the conservatives are paying for it is a misrepresentation of a community led project. To do so without consulting any of the other stakeholders is political oppurtunism. It is also premature as the notice board has still to be delivered and cannot be erected until I have obtained planning permission.

In touch? I don’t think so!