WELL,the time of year has come around once more whereupon our beloved council tell us how much more they are going to rise the council tax by and why ?

First beloved council leaders, remember this: reduced waste collections during winter; libraries closing or going to part-time hours; road chaos affecting small businesses; dirty, stinking streets strewn with rubbish;very little or no presence of foot patrol police officers during any time of the day; increase in assaults, robbery, street crime, burglaries and so on and so on .

You always say you have to save. I agree: get rid of half of the councillors, they are a burden on the public and most of them serve no useful purpose in office and only then it is to move their heads and agree to the powers that be and their ludicrous policies.

Please don’t remind me about the huge investment in the new shopping complex: remember, it is us the public that funded it, not the council and I believe you have already destroyed a once-vibrant and proud town (city) centre, so it’s a case of too little too late, I’m afraid.

I Brown, Malpas, Newport