'Axe the Tax' petition a great success at Kingsbridge Show

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 8th Sep 2003

The Liberal Democrat stand at Kingsbridge Show last Saturday attracted a great deal of interest with people queuing up to sign their petition calling for the replacement of Council tax with a much fairer, local income tax system based on the ability to pay.

Commenting on the day Tones Constituency Liberal Democrat Spokesperson said:

' The overwhelming majority of people who visited our stand were in favour of our proposals recognising that Council Tax is one of the unfairest taxes we have and agreeing with our proposals to replace it with a tax based on your ability to pay. Council tax in this area has nearly doubled in the last 7 years and there is little prospect of avoiding further huge rises with Gordon Brown predicting 10% increases for each of the next two years. Neither the Labour party or the Tories propose to end this system which hits the low wage earners and pensioners in our area particularly hard.

He continued

' The show was a great success and must have attracted record crowds on a beautiful day. It was a superb showcase for the agricultural community and even better for getting back to normal with sheep and cattle present for the first time since Foot and Mouth. As usual everything ran like clockwork - a great credit to the organising team.