There was yet another weekly story in the Gazette about Wiltshire Council introducing another stealth tax, this time on parents needing to use buses to get children to schools.

We have recently had the garden bin tax if you want garden waste still collected. All of the local government councils and departments talk in terms of the need to save money yet to date there doesn’t appear to be much saving when the amount of money wasted on bureaucracy has been spent on postage, leaflets and general advertising and no doubt someone being paid extra to administer the new system of garden waste collections.

Instead of imposing stealth taxes on the hard-pressed taxpayers perhaps the councils should look at their hidden agenda of political aspirations which, although nice to have, are not necessary in these times of austerity.

One of the latest now sees Hungerdown Lane in Chippenham becoming more dangerous for pedestrians, cyclists and motorists. At one point now the road is not passable by two buses in opposite directions. This is a perfect example of the council’s politically correct money wasting. There are lots of other areas no doubt that real money could be saved without the cutback to services, instead of the usual inane meaningless rhetoric that the taxpayers are being subject to on a weekly basis by our councils.

Tony Fellenor, Farleigh Close.