THE other week I attended a full council meeting. With five officers and 50 members present, the salaries, member allowances and overheads must have been over £500 an hour. It was soon apparent that no political group would vote to move the museum. But the political groups wasted two hours on this subject, posturing before the press to gain political advantage.

Last week I went to the finance and policy committee. Five to eight officers and 20 members were present. Running at over £300 per hour, this meeting went on for nine hours! The total cost must have been at least £3000. This was the meeting at which the budget proposals to full council were to be decided. But they were not.

The chairman decided to pass all the ideas to full council. There were no votes on the budget by this meeting. Cllrs Ian Barker and Carol Broad spent ages arguing about an issue well aired many times in The Citizen, namely did the Labour administration run down reserves by millions of pounds. Several of the possible savings, debated but not resolved, were under £2,000 - less than the cost of the meeting!

How does all this represent the efficiency in local government that the MBIs promised?

The Council seems to be locked in for several years to over £1m of annual grants to theatres, professional music groups and charities.

Thus, to balance the 2001/2 budget, about 20 vacant posts will be unfilled. Spending on flowers and grass cutting will be slashed and, believe it or not, the council will spend even less than at present on repairing pavements and dealing with their weeds. But Council Tax will still go up by several times the inflation rate.

Soon there will be a general election when we can ask candidates if they will continue with the national under funding of local government. Also, we might ask why our basic services can be withdrawn in this way, because of years of poor administration which taxpayers were helpless to prevent. Pensioners are the most hit by Council Tax increases.

With their modest income and expenditure, income and value added taxes are quite low.

Council tax often exceeds the total of these for pensioners. Again, this is a problem to raise with candidates.

Michael Jackson, Hest Bank Lodge, Peacock Lane, Hest Bank