More urgent issues than battles past

I REFER to Cllr Sam Souster’s letter in the Rye Observer last week in which he accuses me of not understanding the implications of Rother’s decision to accept the Government’s offer of a one-off payment of £117k in order to freeze the council tax at the 2011/12 levels.
By The Newsroom
Published 2nd Mar 2012, 06:00 BST

I fully understand that the figure that would have been arrived at would have been a 3.5 per cent increase to the council tax payer if this decision had not been made.

Many people would consider this a substantial increase whether or not, as Cllr Souster states, it would have been below the current inflation rate.

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I agree with him that we must hope the gamble does pay off when further big increases in savings will have to be made in subsequent years.

It is for this reason we are entering a dialogue with Rother for the devolution of services to Rye, but not at any price I should add!

As for the second criticism from this district councillor that I am a “constant critic of the Rye Partnership”, I have to refute that allegation.

Perhaps in years past such criticism was justified, for everybody will remember the time when things were not quite so well administered at the Partnership as they are now.

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I am sorry that I did not mention all the partners in the Tilling Green Community Centre project which I accept the Rye Partnership took the lead.

Cllr Souster should realise that we have moved on, and there are more important matters affecting this town than fighting battles past.

Cllr Granville Bantick

Rye

Related topics:GovernmentRye ObserverRye