I WOULD normally ignore the views of ex Councillor Chris McEleny (‘Ex-councillor calls on authority to back tax freeze’, December 29), given that after 10 years of representing the people of Gourock he secured just 126 first preference votes when standing for re-election in 2022.

But with rumours rife that he will be standing for Alba at the upcoming UK General Election I am prepared to indulge him on this occasion.

Mr McEleny’s claim that I campaigned ‘against hikes to council tax in one part of Scotland during an election but will be supporting council tax increases in my own backyard’ is entirely false.

The Labour Party leaflet in Rutherglen and Hamilton West – which I had no role in writing – was highlighting the Scottish Government’s proposals at that time to increase council tax for households in bands E to H by between 7.5 per cent and 22.5 per cent in 2024 before any local increase was applied by councils.

Following the SNP’s resounding defeat at the by-election the First Minister announced his plan to freeze council tax for every household in 2024, quite a spectacular u-turn.

It is of course no surprise that Mr McEleny supports a council tax freeze and doesn’t care about the consequences for local jobs and services, as it was his mentor and current Alba Party leader Alex Salmond who first introduced a council tax freeze in 2008 when he was First Minister.

This freeze and all the other freezes and caps that followed, every one of them supported by Mr McEleny and his then-SNP colleagues, are a key reason why every council in Scotland is facing a financial crisis.

Mr McEleny says we should be protecting households from council tax rises at a time that every other household bill is going up.

The implication of this is that council services are less important than the other things that people pay for.

He also fails to acknowledge that household incomes have also been going up, perhaps not as much as people would like, but they have nonetheless.

Mr McEleny should ask himself why anti-poverty groups like the Poverty Alliance oppose a council tax freeze. They know that a freeze is regressive, as the people who benefit most are those in higher valued properties on good incomes who can afford to pay a little bit more to protect services.

A quarter of households in Inverclyde would not benefit from a council tax freeze as they are in receipt of council tax reduction.

The council’s planning assumption on council tax before the First Minister announced his plan for a freeze was for a seven per cent increase in 2024.

That would result in weekly increases in council tax ranging from £1.28 for a band A property to £4.72 for band H property. I am sure Mr McEleny’s household could afford a few pounds a week more to protect vital local services, I know mine can.

Mr McEleny should be aware that he is out of step with every political group on the council, not just Labour.

We all recognise that a council tax freeze would be financially imprudent given the challenges faced by Inverclyde and all Scottish councils.

We may nevertheless end up with a freeze if the First Minister desperately wants one before the UK election. He could make us an offer we can’t refuse, as has been the case so many times before under his predecessors Salmond and Sturgeon.

Currently however the deal on the table isn’t good enough as it involves a huge cut to our funding, with no provision for pay rises for staff in 2024.

If the First Minister wants to guarantee a freeze, he will need to produce a much better offer in the next few weeks.

Councillor Stephen McCabe

Elected Member Inverclyde East (Ward 1)