From November 9, 2005: Residents paying the seventh highest council tax in the country asked councillors to watch purse strings as the row over why Kingston Council’s senior officers were awarded pay rises of up to 18 per cent continued.

Between 2000 and 2005, the council’s budget swelled by 30 per cent and a typical band D property saw its council tax rise by 45 per cent.

Chessington resident Jim Taylor pleaded with councillors at a state of the borough debate to keep money in mind when making decisions.

He said: “Whatever this borough achieves and whatever it hopes to achieve, it is going to cost money.

“Services provided by the council affect the quality of our life. What can be done to protect that quality in the face of increasing tax costs and council tax?

“Please remember, whatever you decide, that everything costs money and we have to pay for it.”

There were further calls for belt-tightening from then-Conservative leader of the opposition Councillor Kevin Davis, who said taxpayers could not be expected to keep paying for more and more council staff.

He said: “There is an issue about the staff we employ and the council tax we levy.

“We cannot be in a position where council tax has to increase 67 per cent and staff increase 24 per cent. There is a correlation.”

Then-Liberal Democrat leader Derek Osborne said the rises were needed to ensure the best delivery of services.

He said: “The reason we brought in the pay rises is because we were no longer getting the sort of applicants we wanted in senior posts.”

10 YEARS AGO: November 9, 2005 Fourteen gay couples registered to get married in Kingston on the day the new Civil Partnerships Act became law.  The act allowed gay couples to get hitched and benefit from the same legal rights as heterosexual couples for the first time.

25 YEARS AGO: November 9, 1990 Chessington train services were drastically cut after budget reductions. Network South East withdrew 43 trains in June 1990 and replaced them with just nine. The Tolworth and Chessington to Waterloo services were most affected.

50 YEARS AGO: November 9, 1965 Numerous accidents outside Bentalls’ main entrance spar-ked protests for a pedestrian crossing. A statement by the department store’s directors said people were “risking their own lives” at the junction of Wood Street and Clarence Street.