AS thousands of our poorest residents face court summons for council tax arrears the response of Wirral's council leader Phil Davies in last week's Globe simply beggars belief.

Shrugging your shoulders and blaming the Government simply isn't good enough.

In reality, this assault on Wirral's poor is about much more than Government cuts.

It has been sharply compounded by the calamitous failure to manage Wirral's resources over many years.

When the Government handed responsibility for council tax benefit to local authorities in April, it also cut funding by 10%.

Many councils took the sensible decision to absorb this cost as the sums involved were so small they did not warrant collection.

However, Wirral chose to charge residents previously entitled to council tax relief at a rate of 22%.

This is one of the highest rates in the whole of England.

However, rather than accepting responsibility for this social injustice Cllr Davies takes the easy way out and blames Government.

Pat Cleary, Green Party