I've been making a few calculations based on Herefordshire Council's own booklet "Your Council Tax Explained".
It seems even THEY think we're paying serious amounts of extra council tax solely because of the massive debts they've rung up:
http://www.yourconvenience.co.uk/CouncilTaxDebt.htm
Since Council income is fixed it seems extraordinary to me that a Council is allowed to run up debt - in what way can it be in the voters' interest for them to do so?