VICTORY: Dundee City Council to scrap hated shower tax, following Tele campaign

Dundee City Council will remove the shower charge, following a high-profile campaign from the Evening Telegraph.

Some disabled older residents were being charged as much as £10-a-week to shower in their council-run properties.

Plans to abolish the charge were raised by the Dundee Pensioners’ Forum at a council meeting earlier this year, garnering the backing of the Tele in our ‘Axe the Tax’ campaign.

The charge was brought into force in 2007 when showers were installed in the council homes of people who required them because of a disability.

Councillor Anne Rendall today confirmed that it is the intention of the administration to remove the shower charge in its entirety from the start of the financial year.

She said: “We’ve been working very hard over the last few months to identify ways of removing this charge. We gave a very clear public commitment and we will deliver on that.

“I’m delighted for the 2,000 tenants affected that we have a very clear way of removing this charge. This is another example of the positive and proactive approach taken by this administration.”

© DC Thomson

Tele editor Dave Lord said: “This is a fantastic victory which will make a real and meaningful difference to some of our city’s most vulnerable residents.

“I am delighted that council chiefs have heeded our calls to see this manifestly unfair charge scrapped.

“This is a great result for the people of Dundee and proves that people power can lead to change.

“I am proud that the Evening Telegraph campaigned so hard on this issue.”

See tomorrow’s Evening Telegraph for the full story.