WITH tongue in cheek, Bernard Clark (Have Your Say, May 6), urged us to celebrate European Union Day yesterday.

Before any of your readers take him seriously, they might like to know the following.

At Poole council on April 12, I proposed a motion expressing indignation that whilst Poole is facing a massive 14.2 per cent reduction in its financial settlement for 2011/2012, the UK’s contribution to the European Union (EU) showed a net transfer to Brussels of £5.344 billion in 2009 and £9.214 bn in 2010. A rise of 73 per cent.

Since then, Brussels has signalled it wants British taxpayers to pay another budget rise of 4.9 per cent or £682million next year.

Thene there is a rise of 5.8 per cent in the Foreign & Diplomatic budget.

Brussels also wants to remove what little is left of Mrs Thatcher’s rebate; and wants to impose direct taxation on British citizens – a right which traditionally they have only given to the Westminster Parliament.

My motion was carried by the votes of Conservatives alone. Inexplicably, the Lib Dems and Poole People refused to support it.

I have now written to Poole’s three MPs, Robert Syms, Annette Brooke and Conor Burns, to say we do not wish to see future reductions in Poole council’s expenditure of £20m over the next two years soaked up by higher contributions to Brussels.

I have asked them to make the strongest representations to government that the EU budget should be treated as other tiers of government in these austere times and should share responsibility for public spending reductions.

I wait to see what they do.

CLLR TONY WOODCOCK, Civic Centre, Poole