Madam, The time is nigh when Hereford (or is it Leominster?) must try to do its annual sums. But its usual excuse for profligacy has recently deserted it — no doubt to the gratification of many. Gone is any hope of blaming its errors and omissions on the high cost of its pensioners, or on the senility of its local planning committees.

It seems the Office for National Statistics has just named the five councils with the greatest proportion of their citizens over 65, and Herefordshire is not one of them. They are: West Somerset with more than 30 percent, followed by North Norfolk. Rother, Christchurch and East Dorset.

We can add that when honest folk calculate the percentage increase, in something like the council tax, they do it by dividing the increase by the original total —and not by the deceitful way Hereford does it.

K Horne, Gorsley