May I tender my heartiest congratulations on the courageous and public spirited way in which you have brought to the attention of the ratepayers and public of the district the antics and shenanigans of the Lancaster City Council.

Over recent years the council has gone from bad to worse as we have seen a veil of secrecy drawn over its activities - activities which have stemmed from poor administration and mismanagement which have resulted in the wasting of thousands of pounds of tax and ratepayers' money. Ill-fated schemes such as Marineland, the Leisure Park, Bubbles, Morecambe Centre Development, Mr Blobby and just about every tin pot development you can think of. In fact, if you total up the losses sustained by the now acclaimed WOMAD it comes to an horrendous figure.

What is equally disgraceful to the actions of the Labour administration responsible for all this however is the part played by the Conservative so-called opposition to all this. Their reaction has simply been one of acquiescence or total agreement even to the point of being briefed on the Town Clerk fiasco by no less than the Labour group leader himself followed by the Conservative Deputy Group leader Councillor Hannah, giving full support to the latest obscene allowance rises and referring to them as peanuts - I can only assume that this indicates his liking for peanuts.

All in all this city council is in a total mess - clearly seen when you take stock of the money of its members. It is to the credit of your newspaper that you have been willing to speak up - something that the rest of the local media appear to be unable or unwilling to do.

"Citizen Jones"

Over Kellet

via Carnforth

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