DISCREDITED STANDARDS BOARD IS A WASTE OF OUR MONEY - Letter (22/09/05)

Increasingly, we see signs that people have had enough of paying huge sums of money in taxes and getting very little in return. I note that a vicar was sentenced to jail the other day for refusing to pay his spiralling Council Tax demands. The media is full of protestors threatening action unless the tax take on fuel is reduced. All the while more and more public money is squandered on bizarre projects and ineffective quangos.

An example of such waste is The Standards Board of England. This was set up by the Labour Government to rule on complaints made against councillors, despite the fact that there have been perfectly adequate controls in place for years. It will cost £9.2 million in 2005-06. So what have we, the paying public, got for our money? A widely discredited, slow and expensive quango. In 2004-05, of 3,566 complaints, only 3% resulted in a verdict of the Code of Conduct for councillors being breached. Even then, breaches of the Code can be for minor offences such as not showing sufficient "respect".

Conservatives are committed to reducing unnecessary red tape. We believe the Standards Board should be abolished saving taxpayers money. We believe respected bodies such as District Auditors, the Local Government Ombudsman and the police authorities are capable of tackling financial impropriety and administrative incompetence.

The next time you wonder at the amount of tax taken on each litre of petrol you put in your car, remember the £9.2 million spent on the Standards Board. The Conservatives nationally, and at County Hall, will continue to fight waste on behalf of us all, the taxpayers.

Christopher Wolverson,

Leader of the Conservative Group, Somerset County Council