County Cllr Phil Cook, Teignbridge South Division, writes:

As a member of the county council Lib Dem Group since 1993, I would like to comment on the letter from Anne Marie Morris entitled Council tax rise is 'highest in history'.

Ms Morris stated that the council tax was the 'highest in history'.

This is not surprising because each successive year always sees an increase in council tax, partly because of inflation, partly through increased statutory commitments for services and partly because of factors such as the increase in the number of elderly people requiring social services.

She failed to state that the council tax increase – of 2.89 per cent – was the lowest in history.

A few years ago the Tory policy holder for resources on the county council successfully proposed a council tax increase of about 18 per cent. I would be interested to know how a Tory-led county council would cope with a Tory government imposed a nought per cent increase cap on council tax.

I well remember life on the county council in the 1990s under a Tory government when, in a single year, capping led to 200 redundancies for teaching staff.

An attempt to avoid this by the Lib Dem administration saw John Gummer refusing to state if he would impose a cap on the council tax increase, which he duly did, resulting in a £0.5 million cost to Devon taxpayers because of rebilling.

I also remember the niggardly amounts which the government allowed for school capital programmes which meant that thousands of our schoolchildren continued to be educated in post second world war Horsa huts.

Whatever the flaws of this government our schools have benefited from much better revenue support and school building has been at least four or five times better each year than under the Tories.

Finally, the £617 million capital debt of the county council is well within responsible guideline limits and has provided the essential resources for school building and roads maintenance.

Ms Morris should take some note of the fact that the county council was awarded four stars – the highest – for its comprehensive performance assessment for the last financial year.