For people interested in intricate games of chess, the past several years of trying to work out what Conservatives at Essex County Council will do with taxpayers money, will have been enjoyable. For everyone else, the huge reserve funds of taxpayers’ money that the Conservatives have been sitting on over the past few years, is just annoying. Today (27 January) the Tories have announced a low council tax rise, which confirms that they have been consistently taking too much money from taxpayers.

Speaking about the council tax rise, Cllr Tom Smith-Hughes, Liberal Democrats group leader said: “We have been saying for ages now, that excessive reserve funds built up from over-charging local taxpayers in previous years is wrong. Clearly the money was not needed as it hasn’t been spent.

“The Liberal Democrats plan to give the excessive money held by the council back to taxpayers through a one-off rebate, which will give taxpayers a financial boost in these gloomy economic times.

“The Conservative administration has recently announced that it proposes to set up a Bank of Essex. It is hard to believe that any administration could be even thinking of taking on potentially toxic loans financed with taxpayers money and it is a gross mishandling of residents’ hard-earned cash.”