WREXHAM Liberal Democrats are calling on the people of the town to show their support in a campaign to scrap council tax.

A referendum was held in Wrexham town centre last week and passers-by were asked to give an opinion on the abolishment of council tax - dubbed 'the most unpopular and unfair tax in Britain today' by Liberal Democrat party leader Charles Kennedy - and to give their opinion on the alternative of a local income tax (LIT) as suggested by the Liberal Democrats.

Tom Rippeth, who was an Assembly candidate for the party last May, organised the campaign.

He said: 'We feel council tax is unfair as it hits those less well-off very hard. It's one figure and it's unfair that the poorest 20% of society pay four times as big a proportion of their income as the richer 20%.

'The campaign is about putting in place an alternative, the local income tax, where people pay what they can afford.

'We are here today to show people that there is an alternative. It's easy to oppose something without suggesting an alternative so we just want to show people there is a better way.'

In a previous referendum in Wrexham town centre, 94.5% of respondents called for the abolition of council tax and a massive 93% gave their backing to a local income tax.

Other referenda carried out by Lib Dems across Wales have produced similar results. Results show that more than 80% of Welsh people support the replacement.

Councillor Ron Davies, who represents Little Acton ward, said: 'The campaign is not just about council tax, we're also opposing the police tax. We're against the fact there is a 21% rise in police council tax.

'We know council tax is going up by 5% in Wrexham, but police tax is going up 21% on what it was last year, which takes the total increase in Wrexham to 7.5%.

'There is no question we need an adequately funded police force and everybody is happy to see more bobbies on the beat. But there is an important question as to how it should be paid for. The police force is mainly funded by taxes collected by central government, such as Income Tax. But in recent years we are seeing an increasing proportion of funding coming from council tax.'