Pensioners have expressed their disappointment at the outcome of a meeting with city council officials in their attempts to scrap the controversial shower charge.
Gordon Samson, chairman of Dundee Pensioners’ Forum, said they were no closer to having the charge dropped following a meeting with the local authority’s neighbourhood services director Elaine Zwirlein.
Members of the group have met Ms Zwirlein and members of the council several times recently as part of the campaign – spearheaded by the Tele – to scrap the tax.
The forum asked council officers in April to consider an “exit strategy” for winding down the tax – only to be told it would not be considered until the next rent consultation in November.
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Mr Samson said: “We are disappointed that we did not get the answers to many of the questions that we had for Ms Zwirlein.
“We were told that rent consultations with tenants would begin again this month.
“Yet again it would seem that the future of the shower charge depends on what rent option tenants go for.
“If tenants continue to vote for the lowest rent option, then the shower charge will remain in place.
“We are not prepared to continue to accept this charge and we will continue our fight to have it abolished on behalf of council tenants.
“We will now be taking the results of our meeting back to our executive committee.
“The plan after that is to hold a public meeting to pass our latest news on to tenants and get their opinions.”
The Tele is calling on the council to Axe The Shower Tax imposed on all local authority tenants who have a shower at home.
In a recent online poll, almost nine in 10 readers backed our campaign.
A council spokesman said: “We are continuing our discussions with the pensioners’ forum and our tenants on this issue.”
