Article For Kentish Express

22 October 2003

Last week I wrote about the pensions policies of the two major political parties and tried to explain the advantages and disadvantages of each.
But there is more news on the pension front. Conservative controlled Kent County Council has obtained government approval to limit increases of council tax for pensioners to the rate of inflation.

It would, of course, be nice if council tax increases for all of us could be limited to the rate of inflation. Unfortunately the accounts published by the government show that the Chancellor of the Exchequer is assuming that council tax will rise by more than twice the rate of inflation next year – another of his notorious stealth taxes.

So there is unlikely to be much relief for most of us. But pensioners, most of whom we are on fixed incomes, are a special case. So I think the County Council should be congratulated on their initiative.

They are the first council in the country to take this step. I expect others to follow.

Good news, too, about the A259 road along the coast which runs through New Romney, St Mary’s Bay and Dymchurch and connects with the A261 through Hythe. For years I have been fighting to have the road detrunked so that traffic from the west directed away from the A259 and up the A2070 to the M20 at Willesborough.

The signs are now in place and the A259 has, at last, been detrunked. I hope the result will be less heavy traffic through our coastal towns and villages and along the A261 and a better quality of life for many local residents.