Excessive council costs sow mistrust

Dear Sir,

On reading your article on page four in last week's Chronicle, on the excessive cost of hiring a temporary monitoring offi ce, I was struck by its reference to Cheshire East Council's constitution as preventing speedier progress.

It seemed like the constitution was being used as an excuse for extravagant spending.

Constitutions exist to ensure fair play and abiding by the law by creating rules that prevent illegal and unfair practices as well as being democratic.

They are not intended to prevent judicious use or saving of public money.

The council should revisit its constitution to give more fl exibility when it is using public money, or be prepared to defend such expenditure without resorting to such banal excuses.

I hope that the new council will realise that this misuse of taxpayers' money increases the mistrust that much of the public has in politics and results in low turnouts.

Yours faithfully,

(DR) PETER HIRST

Chairman,

Congleton Liberal Democrats.