Pensioners vow to go to prison (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Pensioners vow to go to prison

PENSIONERS in Swindon are ready to join the "grey martyrs" and go to prison rather than pay the 7.3 per cent increase in council tax.

Frank Avenell, Swindon's pensioners' champion, is preparing for Dad's Army militant action if the Government fails to intervene to force the council to reduce its tax level.

In fighting mood, Mr Avenell, the leader of Swindon's Fairness For Pensioners group warned: "If the 7.3 per cent sticks, then I shall be calling a meeting of members to decide upon an action plan.

"The likelihood is that we'll agree to pay the equivalent of only a five per cent rise.

"This was the upper limit being recommended by the Local Government Minister Nick Raynsford.

"Anyone taking legal action against us then would be made to look foolish because we'd be abiding by the Government's policy and they'd be the ones in breach.

"We would have been prepared to accept the Conserva-tive administration's budget which proposed a 6.3 per cent hike.

"Even though it was more than we thought reasonable, it seemed to offer the best achievable deal."

The administration's package was defeated by the mayor's casting vote after a deal was struck between Labour and the Liberal Democrats.

As reported exclusively in the Evening Advertiser on Thursday, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott is furious with Swindon Council for imposing a 7.3 per cent rise against all instructions from Government.

"The Swindon Labour group has put up two fingers to its own Government," said Mr Avenell.

He pledged that he and many of his 3,500 followers were ready to go prison for their principles.

But first he and his group will wait to see if Swindon Council is compelled to back down by Government.

Council leader Mike Bawden (Con, Old Town and Lawn) said: "I can fully sympathise with Frank and the other pensioners of Swindon."

There is likely to be no shortage in Swindon of "grey martyrs" who are being sought by the national anti-tax lobby.

Mass rallies are already being planned for Westminster, aiming to bring gridlock to all roads around the House of Commons.

Volunteers are being given advice on what to say in court, what bailiffs are entitled to remove and how to get round rules that take back-dated payments out of State pensions.

Rallies will coincide with court appearances of the hundreds of pensioners nationwide who have so far refused to pay all or part of their council bills.

Elizabeth Winkfield, 83, of Westward Ho!, Devon, is waiting to be committed to prison after refusing a magistrates' court order to pay her council £99, which she had withheld, and £10 court costs.

She had done what is being proposed by many Swindon pensioners paying an amount up to the rate of inflation and no more.

"I might die before I pay," she said defiantly.

"If they send me to prison, then that is what will happen

"I don't like the idea of prison but I would put up with it.

"I paid the 2.5 per cent increase, but I cannot afford any more."

By Michael Litchfield