IT is a decade since electors threw former Coun Ken Beavan off the council. Yet he still writes letters making the same claims that have proved to be without foundation in the past.

It is disingenuous of him, for example, to claim that the recent tax poll consultation cost more than twice as much as it actually did (which was less than £10,000). He could have checked his facts, but he didn't bother.

Similarly he omits to mention that the service standards that might be expected from each level of taxation were actually published by the council in early December. A lesson in transparency for councils up and down the country and certainly not a level of openness and honesty that he ever advocated when he was a councillor.

But to claim that there are too many highly-paid managers in the council without a shred of justification is shameless. Manager salaries in York are generally less than for similar posts in comparable councils.

The York council's expenditure per head of population is less than for any other council in the country. That is achieved through the prudent management of limited resources.

We will be able to continue to manage without Ken's irrepressible scaremongering for the foreseeable future.

Coun Keith Hyman,

Chairmnan of Leader Executive Member Advisory Panel,

The Old Village,

Huntington, York.

Updated: 10:35 Thursday, February 10, 2005