SIR — The letter from Cllr Keith Ross in last week's Free Press cannot possibly be allowed to pass without comment.

Cllr Ross quotes eloquently from section 35 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 as a means of raising even more money for the district council but has surely missed the later act, The Finance (Common Sense and Reality) Act 2010 - not passed yet but surely will be soon.

That act states in Section 1 (there is only one section) that:

Para a) Central government has no more of our money left.

Para b) The county council has no more of our money left.

Para c) The district council has no more of our money left.

Para d) The parish councils have no more of our money left.

Para e) (and this is the clincher) we the tax paying public have no more money left.

Following the proposal to devolve some services to councils further down the food chain, Cllr Ross speaks of a 'Special Expenses Rate' to fund these services. Where does he think the money is going to come from?

It is a certain fact that if any council relinquishes any services it provides then the tax revenue it has collected for that service will not decrease.

Therefore Cllr Ross proposes that we, the tax paying public, will cough up even more of our money for further grandiose schemes designed solely to stroke the egos of our elected councillors in their glass palaces. No benefit will accrue to the general public.

The old saying goes that you cut your coat according to your cloth.

This seems an alien concept for our district councillors but they could easily learn the principles from any of their voters on limited or fixed incomes, they have to do it all the time.

The comment that we are just 42 weeks from elections will not come soon enough for the voters to speak, we will then see just what the voters think of the profligate way our councillors have used our money.

West Somerset Council has outlived its usefulness - in the words of Oliver Cromwell, "In the name of God go".

Peter V Tout,

Dulverton.