Question,like many Councils in the UK they have increased the council tax by 3.99% this stops a local referendum, by not exceeding 4% however the Parish Council Tax element has increased by 11% and yet there is NO referendum available,NOT VERY DEMOCRATIC. Rural areas get an inferior service,in general from the county and local town Council. FS

I want to know what I should do about a statement on the Parish Councils official website "..... the new owner of the old library had taken up the ramp and blocked in the exit, creating a lot of distress for a group of elderly visitors that were held as ‘prisoners’ ..." This was untrue! Basically I bought a small building from the County Council, who in pre-contract enquiries said the freehold enclosed yard with the building had no easements, except for access to a water pipe for repair. The Parish Council had put a door in the side of the building they own on the other side of this yard opening it onto our land, without planning permission, they have since tried to claim it as a disabled & fire exit which it clearly is not - no signs, proper locks etc, Because this door has a latch and can be slammed shut, they were using it as a main entrance, so they could lock the front door and leave hirers to slam the side door when they finished. This meant everyone using their hall was coming in and out through our front gate and across our land. The incident that prompted the libellous statement above, was one day I had worked at our property and had put my ladder down on my path near my front gate, ready to put on my car roof rack. Someone then come to our building and told me to move my ladder, when I went out into our yard there was a large group of 9 hostile people, so intent on complaining at me and banging my gate into my ladder that I could not get to my ladder to move it straight away anyway. We have had all sorts of silly accusations and strange actions from the Parish Council, who have never spoken to us at all, and from the very first have sent us solicitors letters (10 to date at ratepayers expense) which threaten and assure us of all sorts, much of which is false. The PC clerk has come onto our land to photograph it for their solicitor The PC own two cottages down the road, and told their contractors they could use our land, leading to us calling the Police as they took our building materials stored on our land. The PC continue to send contractors to work on our land using ladders etc without notifying us or asking our consent, so we find plants stamped down and rubbish left behind. We had 10 bin bags of rubbish left on our path containing food and broken glass from a party held at their hall a short time ago, not for the first time since we have had the property, indeed we took action when my wife fell over boxes left in the middle of our path at night. The Parish Council's latest salvo was to apply to Land Registry for a prescriptive right of way, based on truth statements, which claimed some ridiculous things, such as using an entrance since 1950's which was not put in until after 2004, but their solicitor failed to include a copy of their deeds, which were clearly asked for on the forms (as their property is not registered). (returned by Land Reg Feb 2014) This is only part of the story. But back to my initial point what can be done about their statement implying criminal wrongdoing by ourselves? (we have gone down all the official routes up to our MP who did a quick U-turn halfway through) Who's toes did we tread on when we bought this property. Any one want to buy it? my wife is frightened to go down their alone, since two men, we found later from the Parish Hall came hammering on the door.