In December 2007, the TaxPayers Alliance produced the first ever examination of the growth of town hall spending on publicity over the last decade, which is itemised in the annual accounts of the 450-plus local authorities in the UK. It found that councils had doubled their spending on publicity, creating a £450 million publicity machine, at the same time as doubling council tax. A year later, in the midst of the economic crisis, the first paper in the new Council Spending Uncovered series updates the data for the last financial year.
You may remember TPA Campaign Manager Susie Squire’s ‘Ask the PM’ question, which was included in the bulletin a few weeks ago. 
Crucially, Mr Brown doesn’t answer Susie’s question. Ultimately, Britain’s economic picture, as shown by the above figures, is bad enough. But what about going forward? The picture is bleak. Alistair Darling announced in the recent pre Budget report that a gigantic £512 billion will be added to this our nation’s debt. This will amount to more money (taking into account RPI inflation) than we borrowed to win World War 1. This is terrifying, as it will double official debt to £1 trillion, and push up the cost of servicing our debt from £30.8 billion to £40 billion. The longer term implications of this are higher interest rates – markets will decide we are not such a safe economic bet any more, sterling will devalue further, and everyone will feel even worse off than they do now. It was announced this afternoon that the people of Greater Manchester voted in force against the proposed congestion charge, with the 53.2% (1,030,000) turnout voting overwhelmingly against this additional road tax.
No less than 79% of those who voted wanted to reject the charge, and no more than 28% voted yes in one any local authority area. This landslide victory marks the death of the Manchester TIF bid and has hopefully discouraged other areas - not least the West Midlands councils - from further pursuing this unpopular scheme.
Yet, though our congratulations go out to the No campaign, it is worth noting that this is a very bittersweet victory with huge amounts already having been spent on a project that was disliked from its inception. Though families in Greater Manchester will no longer have to pay the hefty £1,200 per year that a congestion charge would mean, a startling £34million has already been spent consulting, debating, drawing-up and promoting the TIF bid according to the Drivers Alliance, all funded by ordinary taxpayers. It just makes it worse that the very residents whove paid for this road pricing ambition seem to have been dead against it from the start, and in the end this £34million bought 218,860 yes votes thats £155 each.
This money has been frittered away by those with a blind commitment to the congestion charge, encouraged by those who stood to benefit. Perhaps, at this very moment the proponents of road charging are busy wondering how to bring its spectre back to life with a different guise and new spin and, if they manage a successful resuscitation, lets hope our councils recognise it for what it is and remember this Manchester vote.
Letters to follow up our reports
2009 Action Days
Were busy compiling a list of leafleting and petition days across the country for 2009. If youd like us to have an action day in your area with other TPA supporters and campaigners, email our grassroots coordinator Tim Aker and well organise an action day near you.
In response to last weeks bulletin we have action days already booked for 2009. The dates and venues are:
Swanage 6 February and 30 April
Shipley 6 June
If youd like to come to these campaign days, please email Tim.
Bristol and South West TPA branch established
A council is not a bank
Stoke Council rejects TPA offer to find savings
TPA supporter and Stoke councillor Gavin Webb recently tabled a motion at Stoke Councils full council meeting inviting the TPA to come in and find savings in the council budget. Sadly, the motion failed Stokes councillors are clearly happy with politics as usual and higher taxes for all. You can read our blog on the debate and Gavins comments here.
Best of the blogs
Campaign: The us and them Olympics
Better Government: Fiddling with Human Rights Law
Better Government: Ageing Britain
Burning our Money: Servicing The Government’s Debt
Non-job of the Week: Non-job of the week
