§ 11.1 pm
§ Mr. David Amess (Basildon)I beg leave to present a petition that has been signed by a considerable number of my constituents. They draw attention to the fact that last year Socialist-controlled Basildon district council imposed the largest rate increase in the country, of 57.2 per cent. My constituents are filled with considerable disquiet because of the vast sums of money that the local authority has been spending ever since.
The petitioners draw particular attention to the council's spending on area management and leisure facilities, and to the fact that the Tower gate theatre is to be further subsidised to the tune of £1.6 million, or otherwise it will go into liquidation.
Huge sums of money have been spent on the new civic centre, and last Wednesday Valentine's day cards were sent to everyone in Basildon at a cost of £46,000. The petition reads:
Wherefore your petitioners pray that your honourable House will urge the Secretary of State for the Environment to use his powers of influence to ensure that local authorities such as Basildon do not set excessively high rates of community charge, the average of which should be no more than £278, and if they do, that he should cap the community charge. And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray".
§ To lie upon the Table.