ONCE again I find myself taking time out from my busy and positive council election campaign to set the record straight and confront those spreading misinformation and inaccuracies about The Conservative Party and our policies.

This is in response to the letter from a “CONCERNED” resident from Cowdenbeath. I will address each statement in order of which they were raised. First though, if you do want to have a serious debate about Council tax and broken promises may I suggest you read previous SNP manifestos and various pieces of literature where they promised to “scrap the unfair Council tax.”

VAT – Please check the 2010 Conservative manifesto.

Tax reforms included raising the inheritance threshold to £1m, raising stamp-duty threshold to £250,000 and cutting corporation tax but there is no mention of VAT whatsoever. David Cameron made no such promise about not increasing VAT and simply said “he did not plan to.”

And let’s not pretend it would’ve been any different under Labour with Gordon Brown. He DID refuse to rule it out and in their manifesto only ruled out increasing VAT on certain goods such as children’s clothes and public transport.

More expensive than England? - We do not “wheeze” and talk down Scotland, however it is an absolute fact that under the Barnett formula Scotland does receive a greater public expenditure per head than England.

Council Tax – I for one do not concern myself with Council Tax in England as it is a completely separate issue and irrelevant to us. I do, however, concern myself with Council Tax in Scotland, particularly Fife. For the benefit of those who are unaware, 1/6 of spending required by Fife Council is collected by them through council tax. Another 1/6 is collected by Fife Council from business rates (however this money is then given to the SNP Government) and finally the rest is made up from grants distributed by the SNP Government.

We may have enjoyed a decade of frozen council tax from the SNP but this was nothing more than a cheap gimmick and vote-winner and now we are ALL paying the price, some more than others. Families like mine are having to absorb a double whammy come April. A 3% increase from Fife Council and as I’m in a band E property, a 7.5% increase imposed by the SNP Government. A very poor error of judgement on their part. Families like mine have a big house because we have big families and not necessarily a big income.

Abolished fees – Once again what goes on in England should not concern you. Scotland now has many, many devolved powers and our Government can implement them how they see fit. Fees for prescriptions, tolls and tuition may have been scrapped but they are certainly not “free” like many would claim. These still need to be paid for and any shortfall has to be made up somehow and usually at the expense of another service.

Robbing Peter to pay Paul if you like. A good example is the SNP’s boast about record numbers applying and going to University (Higher Education) however this comes on the back of the lowest level ever recorded of students in college (Further Education) It is worth noting that the record number of students going to university is made up from record numbers of students from the E.U as they can enjoy a free education at our expense. Also worth noting that many of us enjoy our free prescriptions, however in Fife alone, £2m worth of prescriptions are wasted each and every year.

I have no idea why a Cowdenbeath resident would be “concerned” about issues in England, Surrey or even Moray. As a Cowdenbeath resident myself, a father of 3 and a candidate in May’s council election, I’m concerning myself with issues such as overcrowding schools and stretched teaching staff, 20+ derelict buildings on our High Street, struggling businesses throughout the Cowdenbeath Ward, crumbling roads, neglected parks, I could go on!

If my fellow Conservative candidates and I are elected in May, I can promise you this; your Council Tax WILL increase. This has already been put through by the Labour run council earlier in February and will increase by 3%. And just for the record, Cllr Dave Dempsey, our Conservative leader in Fife Council called for the increase to be scrapped altogether. We are a party of low taxation and believe the family budget should always come before the Government budget and will continue to discredit any attempt to spread any alternative facts and dispel any myths that are spread and circulated.

Finally, please be aware the budget gap for Fife Council next year is £70m and £115m the year after so please don’t look to blame the Tories for any potential consequences in the coming years.

DARREN WATT,

Scottish Conservatives candidate for the Cowdenbeath ward.