“In a budget speech on Wednesday, district council leader Paul Diviani said he was proud of the authority’s cap on the charge, which is the lowest in Devon.

[After saying council tax would be frozen this year Councillor Diviani] added: “I intend again to recommend we freeze our members’ allowances for next year, as we cannot expect our people to understand why we should consider our circumstances to be any different from the majority of the population of East Devon.”

http://www.midweekherald.co.uk/news/district_bosses_freeze_council_tax_1_3972096

But, Leader Diviani, your circumstances are VERY different to ours – you are about to move into a multi-million pound suite of new and unnecessary offices paid for by US. How does that square with the above comment?

AND frozen council tax is achieved only by (a) cutting services (b) selling off assets or (c) a combination of (a) and (b).

(It hasn’t been achieved by cutting staff: EDDC is one of few local authorities that has increased staff numbers over the past 4 years of austerity).