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About Graeme
Why a Councillor? >
Why the Tory’s?
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During
2001 while living in Kittoch Muir (East Kilbride), my status changed when Fiona
moved in with me. I was therefore no longer entitled to the 25% single
persons council tax rebate and I was happy to inform South Lanarkshire
Council of this change. In typical SLC fashion, they ignored my calls until a
letter arrived one day, telling me that I owed them £160 and if I didn’t
pay-up in five days, they would send the bailiffs round! Disgusted by this
letter I called SLC and was told that I shouldn’t worry as this was a
standard letter they send out to anyone that still owes them money at the end
of a tax year. This disgusted me even more because like thousands of other
home owners in the county, I pay my council tax by Direct Debit and I’ve
never missed a payment!
SLC were running a
one-size fits all approach to local government!
When I
moved to Strathaven in 2005, I could no longer sit back and accept:
- The way SLC were ignoring the
people of Strathaven over the Strathaven Academy decant to Crosshouse Campus
in East
Kilbride.
- The state of our roads, which
was disgraceful bearing in mind the amount of council tax we have to pay
in South Lanarkshire.
- New planning applications
were going into SLC and being approved with absolutely no consideration
for Strathaven and its population.
- I was sick of seeing the NEDS hang
around the Common Green on most evenings, hurling verbal abuse at anyone
that happened to be there also.
At the
time, Labour dominated SLC and simply didn’t seem to care about Strathaven
and the wider Avondale areas. In 2007, I had the opportunity to change this
by standing in the May elections as the Scottish Conservative candidate.
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