I AM writing in response to the news item (Amersham edition, January 12) titled "Raise our taxes, councillors are told".

I would like to point out, as a council taxpayer living in the Chiltern District area, that neither I, nor many other taxpayers, wish to see the present extortionate level of council tax increased by even one penny let alone increased over and above the proposed 5.3 per cent rise by the county council.

Of course when our councillors choose to speak to those who represent organisations which stand to benefit from the council tax gravy train they will get the response they received and, I dare say, the response they sought.

They would also, no doubt, be told by those who pay no council tax whatsoever that council tax should be increased even more than it has been to-date to provide extra services.

I might well take a similar view if I didn't have to pay the tax or, alternatively, was on the council tax payroll. I can, however, assure our bold councillors that they would get a totally different response if they bothered to ask those who actually pay the tax but get no direct pecuniary advantage from the said tax.

If councils really wish to test how people feel about their spending plans and whether they wish to pay more or less tax they should send their questionnaire to those who pay the tax. Why not, for example, send it with the tax demand? It has been said there should be no tax without representation. Equally there should be no representation without tax.

As to the view that more tax is required to improve essential services, one has to define what are essential and what are inessential services. Then there is the question of wasteful spending such as the proliferation of town/district/county partnership schemes, pointless road calming schemes, extravagant salaries, expenses and allowances for councillors, local government officers, quango appointees and the bevy of so-called consultants.

Then there is the exceptionally high level of paid sick leave and early retirement (on full pension) taken by those on the council tax payroll to give but a few examples. if such waste was reduced or controlled I would suggest that essential services could be improved without the annual demand for increased council taxes at many times the inflation rate. It is high time councillors at all levels started saving our tax money instead of wasting it.

Incidentally, at a recent election for a Chesham Town Councillor, only 20 per cent of those eligible bothered to vote. The preferred explanation for this sad state of affairs is voter inertia. The reality is that thinking members of the public do not wish to legitimise the expensive but farcical circus which passes as local government. So much for democracy.

John Hearn

Woodley Hill, Chesham