FOR many months you have printed a stream of abusive letters attacking the Labour Party for the1987 rate increase.These letters are oftenanonymous and almostinvariably inaccurate.They appear to be partof a campaign of disinformation.

For the truth is thatwhat local councils dois severely limited byGovernment.

This year the rates inWaltham Forest havegone down by a third--the Labour Party doesnot claim credit for that,any more than we tookthe blame for last year'sincrease

While rates locally are going down, elsewhere they are going up.In fact the 10 biggestincreases have been imposed by Conservative-run councils. Forexample, Gillingham inKent and MeltonMowbray in Leicestershire (both Conservativerun) have imposed 41per cent increases.

When Conservative-run councils up anddown the country areforced to impose rateincreases of such magnitude it becomes clearthat the only way tokeep the rates down isto elect a national Government which isprepared to give localcouncils adequate funding.

Tax cuts for the rich are paid for by rate increases for the rest of us.

JO BRIND (Cllr) ,
St Helier's Road,
Leyton,