Many residents have been asking questions about the "Special Fund" added to their Council Tax bills this year, wondering where it's come from and what it's for.

Over the past few years Telford & Wrekin Council have been threatening to switch off street lamps on footpaths and "inviting" parish and town councils to take responsibility for their up-keep and running costs. Many parish council have agreed to take them on but others have resisted and this new "Special Fund" has been introduced to give them no choice but to agree to take responsibility for them.

The "Special Fund" is being levied on parishes that haven't agreed to take over responsibility for street lamps. The aim is to load council tax bills with punitive charges so that parish councils will agree to take responsibility for them to save their residents money. It has been described by some Labour councillors as a "fine" for those parish councils that won't comply.

The Labour administration has been cutting back services and passing the costs of reinstating them on to parish councils for several years now. They announced the closure of half of the borough's libraries unless parish and town councils agreed to take ownership of them. Environmental maintenance has been stripped back to the bare minimum and parish and town councils are paying tens of thousands to Telford & Wrekin Council to restore the service to what it was. Now they're punishing residents with extra taxes to to force parish and town councils to pay for street lamps.

As always, it is council taxpayers who suffer for Labour's financial mismanagement.