The people's plea to end Council Tax delivered to Downing Street

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 17th Mar 2004

Totnes Constituency Parliamentary Spokesperson joined Devon's Liberal Democrat M.Ps to hand in a petition to 'Scrap Council Tax' to Downing Street yesterday ( 16th. March). Over 1500 signatures collected throughout the Constituency over the last few months were added to thousands more from all over Devon.

The time has come to end this hated tax and replace it with a system based on the ability to pay. Liberal Democrats are the only party to have a fully costed, realistic and workable scheme to do this. Local income tax is fair and redresses the inbalance that exists between those on high incomes and our pensioners and low wage earners. Commenting on the petition Mike Treleaven said:

' As I have gone around the Constituency with this petition I have been overwhelmed with people wanting to sign and express their dissatisfaction with Council Tax. The way in which we pay for local government services, introduced by Michael Howard's Conservatives and perpetuated by this Labour Government is causing immense hardship to thousands of people, particularly pensioners and those on low incomes. The Liberal Democrat proposals for a local income tax based on the ability to pay will give us a much fairer system that does not penalise those on lower incomes. Handing in this petition will demonstrate to Government the strength of feeling in the country that Council Tax has to go. This is just a start to our campaign, which will be gathering pace over the coming months'