A dad-of-three has decided to cancel his direct debit, telling GB News that delaying his “democratic right to vote” was the “final straw”.
It comes after Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner announced last week that nine councils were granted permission to delay their elections for one year under Labour’s devolution plan to turn 18 two-tier councils in England into unitary authorities.
One of those councils was Surrey County Council.
Gary, whose real name we changed to protect his anonymity, was left outraged by the move.
The 63-year-old from Surrey decided to cancel his direct debit out of protest and is now “awaiting their [the council’s] threatening email, which we are going to respond to”.
A dad-of-three has decided to cancel his direct debit over council election delays
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He joins a growing number of people who have decided to withhold their council tax to pressure the Government to reverse course.
The councils granted permission to delay their elections until next year insist it will buy them time to make the necessary structural changes.
For her part, Rayner said that holding elections for bodies that were due to be scrapped would be “an expensive and irresponsible waste of taxpayers’ money”.
However, many voters feel the unilateral move was undemocratic, especially as the ballot box is one of the only ways they can channel their frustrations.
Gary is among them.
“They’re raising our council tax, we pay £260 a month and the services are terrible, our bins are emptied once a fortnight. We’ve got three children and four dogs. I know that’s on us, but we have to do tip runs every couple of weeks to get rid of our waste because the bins are emptied so infrequently,” he told GB News.
The roads are lined with potholes, he continues, adding: “We’ve had to have a roadside mechanic, it was actually on the way to my nan’s funeral in 2023, we hit a pothole and it buckled the wheel.”
What’s more, his once “desirable postcode” has gone massively downhill, with crime rates soaring and groups of young men “hanging about, shouting and drinking”.
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Although he’s not all in on Nigel Farage, Gary would have voted for his local Reform candidate in May’s elections
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As a result, he doesn’t feel comfortable letting his 10-year-old daughter play outside.
Against this backdrop, “taking away my ability to vote for a candidate who promises change was the final straw”, he tells the People’s Channel.
“We decided to do what we’ve done, and it’s now a waiting game because the next move is theirs. Then we will tell them why we have done it.”
Although he’s not all in on Nigel Farage as “I believe he’s just an establishment man”, Gary would have voted for his local Reform candidate because “he’s not Tory or Labour”.