High Tax Hartlepool

HTH is a non-profit site dedicated to raising the profile of local politics in Hartlepool.

The website is now in its 10th year and in that time has become one of the most popular websites in Hartlepool breaking the 40,000 visitors a month barrier in June 2011. This is more than twice as many as Hartlepool Borough Council’s own website - and it’s still growing.

There are currently five people directly involved in maintaining the web site with more acting as either regular or occasional contributors. In 2011, the site underwent a major change in the way it looked and operated. As part of this change, it had been decided to 'throw open' the site to the Hartlepool community and uniquely offer people who had previously only visited the site to contribute directly to its content. 

Hartlepool is a very lucky place geographically lying as it does on the North East coast but yet still close to some of the best countryside in England. It’s already a good place to live, but we believe it could be a great place to live if it was better looked after and better managed. 

The present Borough Council not only charges the highest council tax in the North East but the 3rd highest council tax of all the 326 local authorities in England. Even those living in Band A properties in Hartlepool find themselves burdened with paying the 3rd highest Band A council tax in England. Some people think that we are simply paying too much council tax while others think that we're not getting enough value for money. Either way, it's clear that things could be done in a better, more efficient way.

HTH supports Independent Councillors and those Councillors who have shown themselves able to think Independently without party constraints. In essence, we do not believe that party politics has any place in local Government or in a type of politics which can often put a Councillor in the position of voting for something in which he or she don't actually believe. 

No Councillors have any direct connection to HTH.