Campaigning for Equality

Marion Smith leads the way with a petition from North Down Borough Council asking as many residents to sign.

I recognize that we must pay water charges but all I am asking is that whatever charges are brought in they are fail and equable. Why should my elderly mother pay the same as a family of 4 or 5. Why should her domestic rating tax be used against her simply because she has saved and worked hard for her home. Do not doubt that the domestic rating system will be changed to one based on capital values.

The past 30 - 40 years have seen a water and sewage infrastructure which has not been upgraded. Now we are being told the government will introduce charges - but what it really is, we are being taxed again to have these vital services modernised. I ask what has been happening for the past 30 or more years to the money we have already paid?

Why are we having raw sewage flowing into the sea at Briggs Rocks at the rate equal to a population of some 92,000?

The petition is a beginning to our fight against these unfair taxes. Yes, we will pay - we have little or no option but it must be a fair system.