ILMINSTER’S county and district councillor will ‘not be fooled’ by the council tax reduction announced earlier this month, which she says will not even help South Somerset residents buy a pint of milk or a toilet roll.

Cllr Linda Vijeh voted against the proposed cut, maintaining the money could be put to better use benefiting the community – adding that almost 20 ‘no-show’ councillors were a disgrace .

The News reported this month that South Somerset District Council voted to reduce the council’s share of council tax for South Somerset residents by 1.99%. It now means the average Band D property council tax leve l for 2015-16 is £147.75.

In a letter to The News, Cllr Vijeh said: “As one might expect, there have been many who hav e been keen to jump on this particular bandwagon in the run up to an election. However,Iwas not so willing to be fooled by such machinations .

“I was, in fact, the sole dissenter, voting against the proposed cut, but not for the reasons one might think. To be perfectly honest, the fact that 19 out of the 60 elected members had chosen not to bother attending the budget debate is, to my mind, nothing short of a disgrace and far more newsworthy.

“Having held my ground, my firm stance did garner some rather futile attempts at ridicule from across the floor – along the lines of my wanting to deprive the poor people of Somerset from having a little extra money in their pockets .

“The proposed cut was headlined as being 2% where, as in many organisations, the quoting of percentage points is clearly an effort to mislead.

“A quick calculation shows that this means that each household, not individuals, will be better off by just under 25p per month.

“Personally,Iam hard pushed to see what of any significance might be purchased with this sum of money when it would not even cover the cost of a pint of milk or a toilet roll.

“Given that there are just under 70,000 properties in south Somerset, by retaining the money involved it would have provided up to around £200,000, which would enable something significant to be done to benefit the whole community.

“Lest I be accused of being a killjoy, and not to be too churlish about it, I felt that the budget itself was robust, and it was heartening to see that core services have been retained which is to be applauded.”

At the time of the announcement, deputy leader of the council Cllr Tim Carroll said that he was satisfied the debt-free authority had found a “sound financial situation” for the next two years.

Council leader Cllr Ric Pallister said it was “right and proper” that the residents benefit where possible and that the cut means the council’s “sound financial position” is not compromised.

The authority also agreed no car park charge increases, additional resources for local economic development, and £522,000 for new capital projects .