In March 2004, in the face of a barrage of one-sided propaganda which cost local rent- and tax-payers nearly £1m, the tenants of Wrexham County Borough Council fought off an attempt to force the privatisation of their homes by transferring them to a "Registered Social Landlord (RSL)", i.e. a private company with little or no democratic oversight.

In the month since the announcement of the ballot result, the councillors responsible for this wasteful scheme (New Labour, Tory and "Radical" - this last being a cover-name for the local Lib Dems) have done nothing but whine and wring their hands, instead of getting an action plan together with the support of the tenants and local MPs and AMs, and going down to Cardiff to insist to the Welsh Assembly Government (New Labour) that the hundreds of millions of pounds of public money which the Government was eager to throw at the new private landlords be used for direct investment in maintaining and renovating our homes by the Council. This, after all, was the democratically-expressed wish of the tenants when they rejected privatisation by a 16% margin - the first rejection of housing privatisation in Wales.

Today, the Council decided that it would make its own doom-laden prophecies and threats come true. In an act of spite against some of the most vulnerable in our county, they have decided that council rents will be increased by a further 3% over and above the 5% increase they announced just a few weeks ago. Worse than this, however, is the Council's shameful decision to make heavy cuts to the tenants' decorating allowances - needed by the poorest tenants in order that they can at least maintain the inside of their homes to a decent standard. This measure will 'save' a mere £50 000 pounds, at a time when the Council claims that it needs £1.2 million to balance the housing account.

Worse is still to come, however. The Council is clearly eager to go even further to avenge itself on the tenants who so wilfully rejected the Council's (and the Government's) pet policy. A number of agency-supplied posts are to be dispensed with, and the Council has warned that it will close estate offices and even do away with the service whereby elderly or disabled tenants can have their grass and hedges cut by the Council.

This targeting of tenants in general, and the most vulnerable in particular, is the sort of vicious, spoilt-brat tactic we have long come to expect from Labour (New and Old) in local government in Wales. That they are being aided and abetted by Tories and Lib Dems shows how deep the rot has gone in Wrexham County Borough Council.

There are elections coming up soon. For the sake of the tenants, we must throw these wasters out and replace them with councillors who are not afraid to take on New Labour's 'private good, public bad' ideological mania.

(For the corporate media report on this story, go to  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_east/3601743.stm)