Well said, Derek Mead (Letters, October 31). If the increase in council tax is 35 per cent, it will completely erode my pensions (private ones) that I paid for and also the £200 fuel allowance.

It appears this government gives it away with one hand and takes it back with the other.

Our councillors should lobby our three MPs and, in turn, they should lobby the powers-that-be that we can't afford any increase.

I think, in May, it will be too late for a lot of the councillors who are in situ now and it could well affect many sitting MPs in any future General Election.

We will be living in a country and county of have and have-nots. When Labour came to power in 1997, it was to be an exciting era but it appears it has become a damp squib.

I can quite understand people not bothering to cast a vote. I have voted at all local and general elections since 1959 when I was 21. Now, as an OAP, I'm wavering.

-Roy J Banks, Whitehawk Way, Brighton