Yesterday, supporters from the Staffordshire Moorlands congregated in a rather drizzly Leek for another TPA Action Day spent collecting signatures for a petition to cut local council tax and speaking to market goers about the benefits of tax cuts.
Leek might only be a small town, but in just one afternoon we managed to collect nearly 150 signatures from passers by, and rest assured it won’t stop there, as truly dedicated TPA activists Russell Booth and Barry Robbins plan to keep the petition rolling with further visits to the town centre. We’d like to present the petition to Staffordshire Moorlands District Council next year and show them just how strongly their local residents feel about ever-rising council tax.
It was Don Morris – a central member of our Wolverhampton branch – who came up with the idea of wearing high-visibility vests to attract shoppers’ attention whilst out campaigning, and as you can see from the pictures, we were pretty hard to miss! As a result of these jackets and our TPA signs, once again we had people waiting to sign our petition and support the TPA (not to mention being stopped in the street by fed-up taxpayers whilst we were “off duty”!).
It’s fair to say that our direct action just served to prove that ordinary hard-working taxpayers have had enough of paying more year on year, only to see so much of their money wasted and little improvement in their services. Many of those we chatted with could reel off examples of waste at their local council – not least the widespread anger about the local authority hiring no less than three town centre co-ordinators for Leek.
We’re planning more of these TPA Action Days around the country to help boost our membership and profile, so if you’d like to get involved with one in your local town email [email protected] for the West Midlands and [email protected] for the rest of the country, or call the TPA on 0845 330 9554.