A NORTH Dorset pensioner, who is fighting to have the council tax scrapped, is fuming after his request to address county councillors on the issue was refused.

The rejection comes just a week after Brian Jaye and fellow members of the Is It Fair Campaign took their fight to Brussels on behalf of pensioners and the low paid.

Mr Jaye, of Sturminster Newton, and colleague Tony Constable from Essex, managed to persuade the petitions committee of the European Commission to allow the UK Council Tax protest to go forward to the committee on social affairs.

The pair were supported by a number of committee members, particularly MEPs from Italy and Spain.

Committee chairman Marcin Libicki directed that the protest must go forward, despite attempts by UK MEP Michael Cashman to close the matter.

Mr Jaye said: "In 1994 my council tax bill was £507, but it is now £1,233, an increase of 143 per cent.

"During the same period the state pension has increased by 38 per cent or £22 a week."

Mr Jaye told the committee: "In the south west we are penalised by the government, receiving less grant per capita than the Midlands and North.

"We may be wealthier in property but we are income poor," he added.

Mr Jaye said he had hoped to address county councillors when they met to set next year's council tax and the letter of refusal was a blow.

"It would have been advantageous to tell them about my trip to Brussels," he said.

A spokesman for the county council said Mr Jaye had been allowed to speak at a council tax public meeting in Blandford earlier this month.

First published: Feb 1