BEING a fellow pensioner, I agree with Charles Rushworth's sentiments particularly when he refers to York's "temporary rulers" (Here's a choice, no tax rise at all, Readers' Letters, November 29).

Because many of us were beguiled by the Lib Dems' national stance on what they would do in power, for example replace council tax with a local income tax, we put them in locally and look what they did.

As Mr Rushworth says, when looking at the figures quoted remember that this is usually only the City of York Council figure and doesn't therefore include either the North Yorkshire Police precept or the North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority precept, which was sneaked in this last round.

As for getting this Government to pay for increases in service quality they are passing on to council level, forget it.

I believe the fire and rescue precept is just the first of many more such precepts cooked up by Gordon Brown and the Blair administration to get more tax out of us.

Watch out for: a schools and education precept; a National Health Service precept; or a domestic refuse disposal precept; a street lighting precept; local roads maintenance and repair precept; and a councillors' expenses precept.

And there was I thinking we already were paying for all of this via our council tax.

As a resident of Haxby, I pay the highest tax per band of any parish in City of York Council.

Mike Jones,

Elm End,

Haxby,

York.

Updated: 10:06 Wednesday, December 01, 2004