Councils and their pound of flesh

08/07/2008

On Monday 14th July at 9.30am, Mr Philip McGrevey will be attending the Newton Abbot Magistrates' Court for the fourth or fifth time, trying to obtain justice in his debate with Teignbridge District Council - determining the priority of council tax over the need to try and sustain a reasonable standard of living for pensioners.

The need for budgeting is becoming more and more important as the signs are that the cost of living for a pensioner is rising out of all proportion with the measly increase in pension in April of this year. Unfortunately pensioners do not have expense accounts that they can utilise to make up any short fall.

DPAF will be contacting all its members in the Teignbridge District Council area to go along to support Mt McGrevey and there will be support from other areas.
 
We would ask for Mature Times readers’ support too since we do not want a repetition of what happened in Somerset where a pensioner was driven to take his own life because of the pressures he was under. More and more persons on low and fixed incomes are going to feel even greater pressures in the near future and the more support we can get in pointing this out to politicians, councils and magistrates, we may perhaps find someone among them who will have the guts to say enough is enough.   


Albert Venison
President Devon Pensioners Action Forum