We cannot keep putting this burden onto our residents.  Figures show that over the last 10 years council tax has increased from £857 to £1306 on band D.  The public sector have not had a pay increase for four years. So is it fair to put a further burden on the residents of Middlesbrough by making them pay a further 2% Council Tax rather than freeze it. 

The Mayor tells us that we will have a big black hole in ten years time if we do not put up the council tax.  It is a pity some one did not tell the Labour Government about big black holes some 15 years ago. 

Also over the past 10 years we have outstanding Council Tax of £8.7 million. Yes that is over 8 and a half million pounds still owed to this council.  Now whilst we were reasonably good at collecting council tax 98.1/2% in 2002/3 this not getting better in fact in the year 2011/12 we collected in only 96.43%.  We need to do better on this, if we had collected all the council tax in 2011/12 we would be over One and a half million pounds better off now and maybe we would not need to have the debate whether we should put up the council tax at all.

We need to change our ways of thinking.  We need to think of the council as a business.  We need to think about what we have to offer as a council i.e. services we can sell to other councils, we need to look at how we can make money by using the facilities that we have, for instance, we could hold weddings in the town hall.  This is the way we must start to think and not keep take, take, taking from our residents. 

And finally the more money we take from the residents the less they will have to spend in our shops.  The retail sector of Middlesbrough will suffer and our town will suffer. 

I therefore will not be voting for an increase in council tax.