By A bizarre coincidence, earlier this week I had just finished taking your calls and hearing your views on what seems to be the endless over-reach from so many of our local authorities when I arrived home to find the tax bill from my local council waiting on the mat.

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Living in a part of London in which a donkey with a red rosette would win a local election, I’m used to annual rises and therefore was not surprised at the 4.99 per cent hike, which saw the charge heading towards £3,000.

The accompanying waffling letter from the Mayor (which could also be classed as a form of taxpayer-funded propaganda!)  I was told this was necessary so the council could continue to provide “the services we all rely on” such as “bin collections, parks, libraries, street cleaning, youth services, community safety and vital support for our most vulnerable residents.”

So far so good - and precious little to argue with.

But what wasn’t included is the other questionable areas into which some local authorities have strayed.

While my London borough has, as far as we know, managed to dodge some of the more egregious examples, there’s certainly no shortage elsewhere.

At the end of last year Richmond Council fined a woman £150 for pouring leftover coffee down a drain. Quite what she was meant to do with it was never revealed, and the overzealous decision was reversed.

Meanwhile in Manchester earlier this month the City Council fined a woman £150 after she fed a pigeon a tiny piece of her tortilla wrap.

The most baffling part of this case is there was NO litter left, as the bird had eaten it all! And in Burnley a woman has been threatened with a £2,500 fine for feeding some feral cats.

Local people support her and point she has funded the vets’ bills to have them neutered and brought the number of cats down from 30 to about 12.

What these councils employing tactics that wouldn’t disgrace the old East German Stasi police need to wake up to are some simple facts: we pay them to empty the pins, put books in our libraries, keep the streetlights on (if you’re fortunate to have them) and fill in the occasional pothole.

All of which in any event proves “taxing” enough for seemingly every local authority.

© LBC