The £250,000 question to which the answer will be 'no'

This is what some people like to call a QTWTAIN (question to which the answer is 'no').

Walsall Council, like everyone else, is making more cuts. And half a decade in to austerity budgets, many local authorities would like to be able to put council tax up.

But they've had their hands tied by rules that force them to hold a referendum if they want to increase council tax by more than two per cent.

In the early years of George Osborne's austerity councils also had the incentive of funding the equivalent of a modest rise if they left the precept alone.

Walsall will put up its council tax by just under the two per cent threshold next year, avoiding the need to ask the question and go to the enormous expense of the referendum, not to mention run the considerable risk of being given the biggest 'no' since the residents of the Bernard Matthews farm were asked if they enjoyed Christmas.

But the year after that Walsall's leader Councillor Bird is prepared to put it to the vote, if only because it will mean people understand the implications of refusing to cough up the extra money - the services that will be lost or scaled back.

A referendum sounds like giving local people the ultimate power but part of me does have to wonder, isn't this what we elect the councillors to decide?

If a political party in charge of a local authority treats the council tax as an inexhaustible money tree, it can be voted out come election time. A pledge to freeze or even reduce it should be a manifesto issue.

Given that Labour and the Tories are keen on devolution of power and responsibility to combined authorities and town halls, maybe it is time to give them back control over their own budgets and let the public have the say in the local elections.

It wouldn't cost a penny more.

And it certainly beats spending a cool quarter of a million to answer a question everyone already knows the answer to.

A fond farewell

This is my last column for the Express & Star before I move on to a new role elsewhere.

I've had a fantastic few years and am hugely grateful to the editor for essentially allowing me free rein in this space to write whatever I wanted about politics in the West Midlands.

I'd also like to thank everyone who has ever read this, everyone who has ever written to me, tweeted me, commented under the column online and shown me what a rich mix of opinion and debate exists.

The Black Country and Staffordshire contain a mix of areas that are safe Labour, safe Tory and not remotely safe for anyone, where you defy the opinion pollsters and never fail to surprise the politicians and make them work for you and justify themselves to you. And quite right too.

I've met some of the political greats and the not so greats, interviewed the last three Prime Ministers, been told off by John Prescott, taken tea with Tony Benn, watched Norman Tebbit look up the definition of marriage, had a stand up row with Michael Gove's staff over an unexpected question, and even got a bit of careers advice from William Hague.

And this was what he said: "It's important with politics, as it is with everything else, that you go out while you're still enjoying it before people wonder why you haven't gone away before."

So this is me, enjoying it, going away and saying thanks.