LAST Thursday evening (April 20) I caught the bus into the city centre in an unsuccessful attempt to vote in the Parish Poll on capping city council tax rises.

This poll has been a fiasco from beginning to end.

Firstly, the Parish Meeting which set up the process consisted of around 120 Salisbury electors, representing the 20,000 households in the city, and (judging from those who spoke) most of those appeared to have been Harnham residents hand-picked by a Tory councillor who orchestrated the event, and who failed to answer my question as to how many leaflets the Conservatives had printed to publicise it and in what areas they had been delivered.

The poll itself turned out to be similarly partial in both senses of the word.

Again, I received a leaflet through my door from the Conservatives informing me of the poll, but I live in a ward with a Tory councillor, whereas people I have spoken to in the neighbouring Labour- and Lib Dem-held wards received nothing, and were unaware that the poll was taking place.

As a Green, I do not hold a brief for any other party, and I agree with the Conservatives that the present City Council administration should have done far more to explain the reasons for the 44 per cent rise in the city precept.

However, the propaganda put out by the Tories was extremely misleading.

To put all the blame on the current City Council administration is simply deliberate misinformation for party political ends.

When I got to the city centre on Thursday evening, I found there was another crucial piece of misinformation on the leaflet the Conservatives had delivered to me.

The leaflet said I should vote at the Guildhall, but when I arrived a council official told me that because I live in Fisherton & Bemerton ward, I would have to walk to Five Rivers Leisure Centre and vote there, and then walk all or most of the way back home.

I walked as far as the Maltings before deciding to give up and catch the bus back home for my dinner.

Brig Oubridge Coronation Road, Salisbury