I HAVE read with horror your stories in recent weeks concerning the proposed council tax rise to be levied on the residents of Tavistock, but, not being a resident of the town myself, kept silent. Now that it appears all West Devon residents are to be penalised as a result of this, I feel justified in joining the debate.

The Duke Street shops have plagued this and previous town councils for many years. My old friend and colleague Ernest Knape, long time councillor and former chairman, described the policy of benign neglect operated by the then Tavistock Urban District Council as being one that would come back to haunt the people of the town in years to come. I doubt even he could foresee the scale of the current disaster.

In last week's columns, town clerk Roger Howard says that the problems could be solved by selling a couple of the Duke Street shops, but there's no way the council would do that.‚

Why not? Most councils in the UK have dramatically reduced their property portfolios in recent years with the sale of council housing; why does the town council insist on managing a substantial commercial property portfolio at the expense of the council tax payer, when these properties could all be sold for a substantial sum, which could then be used to improve the remaining estate (town hall, pannier market, council chamber etc).

So let us have some open debate. What do the council see as the benefits in continuing to own and operate these properties? What would the shops realise if sold, and to what purpose should this money be put? All residents of the borough are now being required to put their money where their mouths are (£460,000 extra for Tavistock residents, and a £72,000 'tax penalty'‚ residents of West Devon), so let's hear what those mouths have to say.

Rob Fogwill

Weir Lodge

Lamerton

SO Tavistock Town Council will find it 'horrendously difficult' to refund the money levied on council taxpayers purely to finance the Council's legal proceedings.

Why? How expensive would it be? Can we have some figures please?

And if, as Colonel Howard says, the council may not, in the event, actually need the money, is there any moral alternative to returning it to the people from whom it has been exacted?

Judith Davies

43 Parkwood Road

Tavistock