Council house rents to rise?

The City of York Council has announced this morning that council house rents in the city are to rise by 6%. York has dozens of empty shops, dozens of closed down pubs, dozens of estate agencies closed, dozens of manufacturers closed down, garages galore with car showrooms closed and thousands of people now out of work and unlikely to find any - there aren't any jobs. Solicitors are also being laid off and managers and their staff from investment businesses. If the professionals can't get work what hope have those living in council rentals and just where are they going to be able to find this extra 6% right now? Our council has just awarded the councillors their second pay rise WITHIN 12 months and have a watertight gold plated pension scheme in place for them which we are all contributing to. Last week they announced rises in payments for on-street parking permits for outside your own house and increases in car park charges. Why don't they have the commercial nouse to understand that when times are hard people don't have any extra money and will therefore have to cut back on things like visiting the city and parking, currently i think it's something like �2.70 per hour and the park and ride facility is neither use nor ornament if you have large heavy shopping. Shouldn't they stop their own pay rise and call a halt to taxpayers contributions from our rates to their pensions before they inflict any more damage on the local economy?