LABOUR councillors and their supporters seem to find the new Con/Lib Dem’s focus on basic services very funny, with their constant derogatory quips about green bins, or alternately, as Cllr Neil Barnes grumpily comments, that we are “prioritis(ing) services for the comfortable” over others.

Labour as usual just don’t get it. The main purpose of a local authority is to provide high quality basic services for all residents and to set the agenda for the way forward, not to attempt to replicate national social programmes with council taxpayers’ money.

James Alexander’s discredited Labour administration fell in part because it insisted on prioritised spending on behalf of its own client groups over spending on services which benefit everyone in the city.

Green bins, recycling and street scene issues are not glamorous and they don’t provide, as Labour Cllr Janet Looker tellingly called for at last Thursday’s council meeting, more “bread and circuses”.

We think residents will appreciate a little more bread and a little less circus this time around, thank you very much, and that they will look forward to having those green bins emptied.

Cllr Tony Richardson, Conservative, Haxby and Wigginton Ward, York Road, Haxby, York