SINCE the 1997/98 council tax year to date, the average annual rate of increase has been 9.16 per cent.

If this is perpetuated until the year 2007, the amount due will have doubled.

So, if one can assume a figure of about £600 for a Band D property in 1997/98, a figure of more than £1,200 can be expected in 2007.

How appropriate that tax should fall due on All Fools' Day. A sobering thought isn't it?

Whoever had the nerve to suggest that piracy and highway robbery were things of the past?

With the local elections coming along in a few weeks it would be a suitable time to pose one or two pertinent questions to those people seeking election.

G Price,

Lahn Drive,

Droitwich Spa.