I RECEIVED my council tax bill on Saturday for the coming year and was surprised that the only increase was for the police.

My daughter broke down last Wednesday on the A13, just past the London bound slip from Stanford-le-Hope, and could only get her offside wheels off the road.

There is no hard shoulder and also not really anywhere safe to stand while she waited for the breakdown service to arrive – they took two hours, so much for responding to a lone female within 45 minutes. She was on her own on a very busy road and was passed by several police cars, who suffice to say did not stop, even though the situation was dangerous and she stood there as it got dark with cars flashing their lights and lorry drivers hooting their horns.

Obviously the police were too busy rushing around the borough in their flash cars trying to emulate the cops in American movies.

They certainly don’t send out patrol cars to the Laird Avenue, Jesmond and Springfield Road areas, where boys on scramble bikes charge around, some with no helmets, terrorising people walking their dogs or congregating outside the off licences shouting and kicking footballs against shutters on the shops.

Please tell me what service we paying for that warrants the increase? – JANET de VRIES, Springfield Road, Grays.