In his otherwise excellent election profile on Adur Council (The Argus, April 14) Nigel Freedman has been somewhat misled about the local tax rise.

I do not blame him because it would take a Philadelphia lawyer to understand all the graphs and figures in the multi-coloured leaflets that have accompanied our rate demands this year.

He says Adur's tax has gone up by 18.5 per cent. That is not correct. The Adur rise is 10.3per cent.

It is the West Sussex County Council rate which has gone up by 18.5 per cent.

Adur, of course, collects both rates at the same time and, in my case, it is costing me £262.87 more, which includes a rise in the Sussex Police Authority levy.

Labour keeps telling us, tongue in cheek, that the central government grant to West Sussex has gone up by £14.8 million. And it is true.

What it fails to say is the county needs an extra £57.8 million this year just to stand still, some of it to meet new government regulations.

It needs, for example: £24.6 million more to cover inflation and extra national insurance contributions; £7.2 million more to cater for extra pupil numbers, nursery places and special needs education; £2.5 million more for extra residential care for the elderly and £3 million more to dispose of increased volumes of waste.

Labour also overlooks the fact that West Sussex had the second-worst settlement from the government of all 34 English shire counties.

The money has gone to the big cities in the North and Midlands in a vain bid to placate Labour voters.

The highly-qualified, professional officers of West Sussex, who are not involved in party politics, have gone public in a leaflet delivered to every ratepayer which lays the blame for the rate rise at the government's doorstep.

That's good enough for me.

However hard up we maybe, particularly the elderly on fixed incomes, we are required by law to pay our rates.

When people are worried about their bills, dissembling of the kind in which socialist councillors at Adur have indulged in recent weeks is cruel and mendacious.

-Harry Treadwell, Conservative candidate, St Mary's Ward, Shoreham