> Also I do not follow your logic of suggesting that paying more sooner saves > the electorate money. I would rather have the extra money in my bank > account! I wasn't suggesting that at all. I was suggesting that it would leave the electorate with the impression that they were paying less than they currently are. As we have discussed before, what people think and what the facts are are two completely different things. If anything proves this it is the recent publicity surrounding this. People remember bad things but not good and a huge increase generates lots of negative impact. It may cost you less than if the prices went up gradually but it doesn't feel less. > Paul has already pointed out that SCDC is not Conservative controlled and I > could make a case for saying that the balance of power rests with the > Independent members. Okay, I should have written 'conservative' rather than 'Conservative'. Fact is, it's not socialist. And regardless of which political party holds the sway or what the actual party allegiances are, it appears to act in a rather conservative (or Conservative) way. Isn't it the Conservatives who have formed the cabinet? With help from the independents of course. And hasn't it become that a large number of decisions are made by cabinet? Therefore, effectively we have a council that acts in a Conservative way a lot of the time. Even if the independents' personal political leanings were only statistically as the rest of the country (rather than locally), a good third of them would be Conservative. Conservatism is a mindset as well as a political party. Liz