Standard Reporter

ANGRY ratepayers today condemned their council's decision to go ahead with a 62.2 per cent rate rise.

More than 5000 residents besieged Waltham Forest town hall while councillors debated the new rate of 321p in the pound--the highest in London.

For 83,000 householders it will mean, on average, an extra £5.13p a week and the average annual bill goes up from £432 to £701.

A motion to overturn the increase, which was passed last month, was lost by 30 votes to 24 at last night's meeting.

Kathleen Collins, 70, who was in the demo, said today: "The battle is far from over yet. I'm absolutely disgusted by their decision. I'm a pensioner and I can't afford to pay a rise like that. My pension isn't going to go up by anything like 62.2 per cent.

"This council is flying in the face of public opinion and ignoring the people who put them in power."

Ratepayers' Action Group spokesman John Anderson, 40, said : " This rise is going to crucify local businesses and turn this borough into an economic wasteland.

"Many people in the borough just can't afford the rise. But the battle is far from over yet." .

A man of 42 said:" I will not pay this rate rise. It's a ludicrous demand from a loony council that seems to have lost sight of the people who voted them in."

Many others at the demo said they would refuse to pay until the council reduces the rates.

Tempers flared and fists flew at the protest which halted traffic. Dozens of police were called, but there were no arrests.

At the meeting, Tory group leader Mike Lewis, was cheered by a packed public gallery when he proposed; the motion to scrap the increase.

"Ordinary, non-political, indignant people are protesting against the unreasonable imposition of a rate increase that will affect the standard of living in this borough,"