West Country local supporters gathered for our latest War on Waste action day on historic Plymouth Hoe next to Smeaton’s Tower lighthouse.
Famous Devon sea captain Sir Francis Drake set out from Plymouth to defeat the Spanish Armada and we only thought it appropriate to protest at the encroachment of another bloated vessel—big government—by posing beneath his fine bronze statue on the Hoe. We then headed towards the city’s council building and handed out our War on Waste booklets in the city centre.
‘I feel that in a time of bloated government, at both a national and local level, any campaign to cut public spending is to be encouraged,’ says local supporter Dylan Morris. ‘Looking around Plymouth at the masses of wasted money it’s hard to ignore the need for lower spending, and that’s why I believe that the TPA’s War on Waste campaign is something to be embraced and supported.’
Plymouth City Council recently paid out £669,000 of taxpayers’ money to top accountants Ernst and Young—to help save them money! ‘We have to spend money to save money,’ argued the Council’s Chief Executive.
But local MP Gary Streeter was far from impressed. ‘The council has some serious questions to answer from residents who are facing an increase in their council tax on why they spent this much,’ he told the Plymouth Herald. ‘We are paying senior officers a great deal of money. They work extremely hard for it, and I accept that sometimes it’s necessary to go outside of the organisation, but I wouldn’t expect a piece of work like this to cost anything near that much.’
Neither is the TPA impressed. ‘Taxpayers will be rightly outraged that the council has wasted their money on costly consultants to write a report on how to do its own job,’ says our political director Dia Chakravarty.
Tim Newark, South West TaxPayers' Alliance