Lodge a complaint

YOUR correspondent Fred Webster (Citizen May 20) writes a lot of nebulous stuff about asking the wrong questions and dreaming up so many unworkable answers but the one dogmatic assertion he makes is that councillors' main motivation is "not to run the business for us but to hold power". He is wrong. During 30 years on the council I found that councillors of whatever political party wish to do their best for those they represent. Of course they differ, have different priorities and different solutions for problems. The difficulties councillors face are reconciling conflicting demands and prioritising conflicting interests. On the one hand we want reduced council taxes and on the other we want improved services. (Keep pools open, cut verges more frequently, employ more dog wardens and so on). Then there are the conflicting interests. The environmentalists want to discourage cars from clogging up the town centre and no M6 link and shopkeepers want lower car parking charges to encourage more people into the town centre and Heysham port wants better access to the motorway. Being a councillor is like being a football referee. You'll never make the right decision for all those on the side lines. Perhaps Fred Webster should get on the field and give us all the benefit of his obvious expertise rather than from the safety of the touchline tell others how wrong they were.