A family's plea to poll tax evaders

I live in Gateshead, although not in the parish visited by Fr John Medcalf (December 28).
My husband and I pay full poll tax, although he works only intermittently and is unemployed as I write. One son at home is unemployed and pays reduced poll tax. He was, until June, at university and paid it out of his grant which was "frozen" by the government. Another son at home, a student, pays his, also at reduced rate.
My mother, a council house tenant supported solely by her old age pension and supplementary benefit, pays her reduced poll tax, and my brother, co-signatory of this letter, pays reduced poll tax from his state disability pension.
In the case of my husband and myself, the poll tax is £100 more this year than our previous rates.
From the tone of his comments, Fr John Medcalf obviously approves of the action of parish priest, Fr Tony Battle and "The Gateshead 'Geordies' (who) have refused to pay the hated poll tax."
As to the Gateshead Geordies who do pay, how much will they be expected to find next financial year to cover the nonpayers? Do they deserve the financial hardship which will result from these refusals?
How would non-payers feel if no one emptied their dustbins or if their house was burning and the fire brigade refused to come? How would they feel if their children were turned away from school, or if they were refused entry to parks and swimming pools? Money has to come from somewhere to pay for these things.
Gateshead is not a beautiful town. It has shabby areas and poor high street shopping, but it has a first-rate park, a leisure centre, an excellent art gallery and a good library service among other amenities. The rubbish is removed regularly and the litter cleared from the streets. It could be much better but it could be much, much worse!
If more and more people refuse to pay then litter will pile up in the streets and back lanes leading to an increase in rats and other vermin, parks and grassy areas will become overgrown, and leisure activities will be forced to close down.
We do not like the poll tax. We know that there has got to be a better way of raising local government money than this, but meanwhile to pay it is necessary and it is also the law. An unfair law maybe, but not such a wicked one that a priest should, by example, encourage others to break it, especially when the consequences of many more doing so would lead to a heavier financial burden being placed on fellow townspeople as well as appalling risks to the health and safety of the community.
M C Bell, J Cawthorn ABDC Bell A E Bell Gateshead