Dear Editor,
It was recently noticed that the Anna Regina Town Council had increased their impounding fees for cattle to ten thousand per head, irrespective of where the animals were impounded.
According to previous notices in the press, if I can recall well, that amount only applied to animals straying on the main public roads which were under the purview of the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The municipality was accepting animals impounded from privately owned cultivation areas and from other private properties and charging already resource poor cattle owners the illegally imposed fines. It was also suspected that some of the animals were unjustifiably or illegally impounded.
If this is the case, it would be distressing that a legally constituted, elected body has chosen to break the law and inflict an additional burden on an important part of the populace.
This letter is written with the hope of bringing the issue to the notice of the relevant authorities for investigation and correction.
I also hope that after such rectification, the municipal authorities will have the decency to voluntarily refund offended parties the excess monies they had extracted from them.
Yours faithfully,
Charles Gregory
