I HAVE read in the Evening Advertiser (November 26) that Swindon Council leader Mike Bawden has stated that if there is a double-digit rise in council tax next April that because council tax increased by 15.4 per cent last year and by 15.9 per cent the year before it will mean that tax payers "will have forked out 41.4 per cent increase over the past three years".

This calculation is completely incorrect because the foregoing would show an increase of 47.1 per cent compounded, and this is considerably different from 41.4 per cent.

This sort of calculation makes me despair and, if it is an example of the way Swindon councillors work out finances, it is little wonder that council tax money has been frittered away over the years and Swindon Council has been designated as one of the most inefficient in the country.

It also makes me wonder if this regime is going to be any better than the previous one.

The article also suggested that we can afford another big increase because the average salary in Swindon is £26,320 and that we get £1,600 per year more than the rest of the country.

In my case, I am a pensioner, and neither of these statements apply.

I retired at the age of 65 in 1997. I had not provided much private pension for my wife and myself in my working life, deciding to rely mainly on private investments and savings for our retirement years. Everybody knows what has happened to investments, and the interest from savings is at a pathetically low level.

The State pension received in 1997/98 (when I retired) was £3,247.40 per year; in 2003/04 it is £4,027.40, which is a £780 (24 per cent) increase. I happen to live in a higher band house and in 1997/98 the council tax was £998.72; in 2003/04 it is £1,763.17, which is a £764.45 (76.5 per cent) increase. This shows that the council tax has increased more than three times as fast as pensions.

It is quite obvious that if council tax increases more than the State pension next April, then there will simply not be the money to pay it, so it will not get paid. Any other so-called initiatives, wild ideas or hare-brained thoughts by central Government will have to be paid for by them, and not by council tax payers.

JACK DAVISON

Wanborough