MADAM, Without searching for it I have the idea that there is something special about Walford Parish Council and upstanding folk like Heather Fvans. She is right in one respect; that it is usually the case that too few people put themselves forward for parish councils. But has she asked herself why?

A wise old bird of my acquaintance has it that council vacancies are usually filled by 'newcomers' (a local word) who only last until they discover what a waste of talent it is.

I know of one not-untypical council where no new appointment has been made by election in more than ten years, where only one councillor has been there longer, and where a recent resignation seems to have been in protest at an attempt to increase the cost of the clerk by stealth. This expense is now threatening to overwhelm the precept.

Having once been a 'newcomer' I would now find it shameful to appropriate public money in this fashion.

K Horne, Gorsley