The ballot paper will be straightforward and will give people simple choices between levels of council

The ballot paper will be straightforward and will give people simple choices between levels of council tax and levels of spending, particularly on education,” Mr Micklewright said.The Government’s financial settlement and grant to Bristol for next year implies an increase in council tax of about 5 per cent to maintain spending Bristol’s council tax has been unchanged since March 1998. It is £999 for a band D property, compared with a regional capital average of £981 and a major city average of £925.The city spends £154m a year on education, about £44 per head of population above its Standard Spending Assessment (SSA) On average, the UK’s cities spend in line with their SSAs. Bristol’s relatively high spending on education makes it the only large service where savings could reasonably be made.The cost of holding the ballot represents about 0.03 per cent of the council’s overall net budget, and the money will come from the city’s existing running costs so that the expense of staging the referendum will not have any direct impact on residents.The city council is the largest single employer in the south-west of England, with 22,000 employees, including teaching staff.Ministers were impressed by a similar referendum, albeit on a much smaller scale, which was held in Milton Keynes last year. However, Bristol’s referendum would be the first to be held by a city of its size, and the first to offer an option of no increase in council tax.Croydon council in London is also considering the possibility of a tax referendum.. The London Eye is to shut for nearly four weeks to allow engineers to carry out routine maintenance work. The London Eye is to shut for nearly four weeks to allow engineers to carry out routine maintenance work.
Its closure was confirmed as the wheel was forced to shut for three hours yesterday because it was slowed down by icy conditions.British Airways, the Eye’s sponsor, said the work would include checks on the welds holding the 450ft-high structure together.

It will be closed from 15 January to 9 February while all the joints on the wheel are tested by ultrasonic equipment that can detect faults deep inside the metal.There will also be inspections of the air conditioning and the computers and the oil in the drive equipment will be changed.BA did not announce the shutdown but a spokeswoman said that people who had wanted to book for the non-operational period had been informed Its recorded message booking line also mentions the closure. Previous maintenance work has been carried out at night so the wheel can continue taking passengers during daylight hours.Yesterday the Eye had to stop rides in mid-morning because of the freezing weather. It reopened at 2pm after about three hours.A BA spokeswoman said: “We had de-iced the rim of the wheel, but after an hour of normal operation we found that a part had frozen up Everyone on the wheel was able to complete their ride.”. Two fishermen who disappeared in separate boats off the snow-swept Inner Hebrides were discovered alive within 30 minutes of each other yesterday, to the surprise and admiration of rescue teams. Two fishermen who disappeared in separate boats off the snow-swept Inner Hebrides were discovered alive within 30 minutes of each other yesterday, to the surprise and admiration of rescue teams.
“Both men have shown the strength of human resilience and the will to live,” said Inspector Sandy Gray of Portree police “It is very heartening that they survived. I have never known anything like it.” Another police officer described their survival in the highly dangerous seas as “totally unbelievable”.Donald MacDonald, 46, and John MacDonald, 52, live in the same street in the village of Tarskavaig in Sleat, on the south-east of Skye, and usually fish for crabs from the same boat. Neither knew the other had gone to sea that day.Both were lost off the windswept isle in a whiteout which forced helicopters, lifeboats, police and fishing boats to abandon the search on Wednesday night.

Last night the men were in hospital on Skye.John MacDonald was discovered by other fishermen, clinging to his boat half a mile off the Isle of Rum. He told rescuers he had been pitched overboard by wind and waves and had been in the water at least half an hour He was airlifted to hospital, suffering hypothermia. The water temper- ature was said to be around 7C.John MacDonald said: “It just became a whiteout with snow that heavy you could hardly see the bow of the boat – and it’s only a 10ft boat.Then the outboard broke down Darkness came in about 3.30pm to 4pm. It is nigh on impossible to see anything and it’s dangerous with the reefs.”I had no way of moving the boat so I just drifted and drifted 15 miles I had no food, and no radio, but I had my weather clothing I heard fishing boats during the night. I shouted but they couldn’t hear because of the noise of their fishing gear. But by good luck, one of the boys looking for me came on the scene, and I thought it was my luckiest day.”Sniffer dogs found Donald MacDonald staggering along on snow-covered moorland a mile and a half from the coast, after walking all night.

He had run out of petrol, moored his 13ft open boat on Rubha Charn Nan Cearc, one of Skye’s peninsulas, and taken to the shore.”He knew that if he lay down he would perish, so he had to keep walking,” said Inspector Gray. Donald MacDonald’s wife, Jan said the news of their rescue “like going from a very dark night to a very sunny day”. She added: “Apparently he was going down the coast when the weather came in. As he was putting more fuel in, the boat turned 180 degrees without him realising and he set off in the wrong direction.”He was just out in the boat looking for whelks That’s what he tends to do as treats for this time of year When he did not return you begin to fear the worst. It was absolutely awful.”Twenty minutes after he left shore, it became a whiteout.