ENVIRONMENT and Wildlife recently announced in the press that we intend to fight the forthcoming local elections. I was surprised, then, that a councillor we have never met should use the same press to make a public, personal and abusive attack.

The quote picked up on was from a shortened version of a press interview which naturally could not all have been reported.

It included the comment: "If one of our candidates is elected they will be the Environment and Wildlife councillor for the whole borough. We will help every one of the borough's constituents in our field of expertise. We would not be sitting on education and social services committees but would refer enquiries from our constituents on these matters to other ward councillors, who may have more expertise in these matters".

This last phrase recognises the skills of others and shows our desire for a balanced council where environmental issues are paid more than lip service.

Being so quick to judge a person on such limited information is not a quality one would associate with someone interested in social welfare issues. The attack demonstrated a level of intolerance that one should not expect from a councillor.

Next time this councillor should check her facts - otherwise Labour could be responsible for running up another large legal bill.

DAVE BENTLEY,

Environment and Wildlife.

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