CLLR Barker's letter (Letters: 2 August) misses the main point about the cabinet on the City Council. There are ten places available but Labour refuses to take up the three places it has been allocated. If it wants to oppose things that it disagrees with, the best way is to speak and vote against them on the cabinet.

The Labour group has deliberately reduced its influence on the running of the council so that it can blame somebody else when things go wrong.

The Green Party neither specifically support the Independents or Labour (or Conservatives or Lib Dems); we support a PR system where each group has a voice equal to its number of elected representatives. It is easy to quote a similar number of occasions where Labour has voted with the Independents. For example: the decision to ignore the inspector's report about removal of the Western Bypass from the Local Plan; to build nearly 1000 houses on green fields to the South of Lancaster; to sell off the land occupied by the Navigation pub on Lancaster canal; to approve incineration as a means of disposing of waste. Last spring, the Greens took the lead opposing cuts to housing charities after two occasions when Labour councillors (not Cllr Barker) sided with the Independents and voted against the grants being given.

The council does not receive what I consider to be adequate funding from central government. Most services operate on a shoestring, our pavements are falling apart, and there aren't enough staff to pick up litter. We do, unfortunately, have to pay large sums of money to carry out the Government's Best Value programmes (privatisation by the back door), District Auditor fees and the like. However, given that this is unlikely to change much in the near future, a properly managed programme of voluntary redundancies seems one way to try to sort out our financial problems.

Early retirements approved in the last three years will cost over £850,000, but staffing reductions will allow the council to save over £380,000 annually from next year onwards (this is after allowing for pension costs).

Cllr Jon Barry

Willow Lane