THE residents of the Copmanthorpe ward have received the latest diatribe to emanate from the Liberal Democrats, and it is with some sense of sorrow that I feel a response is necessary to some of the comments.

The Conservative Group did abstain on the Liberal Democrat motion, which was to keep the swimming pools open at any cost. We as a responsible group wanted to have before us the full financial facts before committing ourselves; we could not subscribe to signing a blank cheque. Now that the true cost of keeping those pools open is beginning to emerge, we should be asking the Liberal Democrats where they think the money is coming from or what services they wish to cut to fund these pools.

We were also criticised for voting against their move to reduce care charges. That is true, however, we wished to reduce the charges back to the 1999 level, this would have meant no increase at all and we moved a resolution accordingly. The Liberal Democrats in their wisdom refused to back this resolution, instead preferring to increase charges.

Perhaps in future editions of Focus they will tell us how much their shadow cabinet is costing York residents. Perhaps they might explain why the council tax payer should fund a political advisor for their benefit. They might even be persuaded to explain why they constantly call for expensive reports on a whole range of issues, which just increases the amount of useless paper being produced.

As a final matter of interest, they recently called for a report to define a complaint. And they wish to run the council, God forbid.

John C Galvin,

Conservative Group Leader,

Copmanthorpe Ward,

Bridge Road,

Bishopthorpe, York.