As an 83-year-old partly disabled widower living alone in a house I bought in 1960 and not having used any facilities in Brighton for more than 20 years, I think it is criminal extortion to charge me £98 per month for council tax when I only have a single fixed income.

Having worked from the age of 15 to 70 including five years as an officer pilot in the RAF during World War II and caring for my wife who had Altzheimer's for eight years before she died in 1991, I have paid more than my fair share of Inland Revenue and council taxes.

It is about time people over 70 were exempted from all taxes and allowed to die in peace with a period of freedom from worry and strife. We have earned it.

-G W King, Brighton