AS ONE who has promoted 'open government' for many years, I am always delighted to see local people take a keener interest in council affairs. I do hope however, that before rushing to print they take time to study council papers properly and if they do not understand them, councillors and officers are only too pleased to help.

It seems that Mr Withington has not understood what he has been given but has still rushed into print. His most recent letter contains several errors of fact:

The Cabinet consists of leader, deputy leader and six others.

There are six area boards, not 16.

Thirteen councillors receive only the basic allowance.

Councillors do not receive a telephone allowance or travel expenses for journeys within the borough. I would add that the new allowance system is much simper, requires no form-filling and thus leaves officers free to do other work.

Regarding Scrutiny and Review panels, they do not duplicate the work of cabinet members. They are there to review cabinet decisions and, when they think necessary, to delay those decisions being put into effect until there has been time for greater debate.

Finally, I would like to comment in a similar vein to "Fifth Columnist" Peter Doherty. He too has failed to understand official documents.

He says the government is spending "loads less on public services". What he should say is that as a percentage of total expenditure, it is spending less.

However, in real cash terms it is spending more than the Tories, despite having to pay off billions of debt incurred as a result of the failure of Thatcherite social and economic policies.

COUNCILLOR J. BYRNE,

deputy leader of the council

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.