Reader's letter

Those correspondents who complain about the level of councillors' expenses quite frankly don't have a clue with regard to this issue.

Much of a councillor's allowance is recompense for items such as stamps, stationery and phone calls, all of which have to be accounted for. The actual amount paid for attendance at council meetings is minimal.

Councillors are not paid for the rest of their time they devote to doing their job properly. This is the time they spend writing letters, making telephone calls, making personal visits to the electorate, reading council documentation, attending additional meetings outside the normal run of council meetings.

Much of this work is often done in their free time, outside of normal working hours and to the detriment of family and personal commitments. I doubt if those moaning about it would be happy to give this level of commitment themselves.

Having full-time, paid councillors is, in my opinion, long overdue. The reason that councillors, such as Hills and Merrett repeatedly offer themselves for re election, is purely devotion to making York a better place for all of its citizens to live.

The fact that as a council York is ranked 22nd out of 114 for performance is testimony to this dedication and it is something that we should all be proud of and thankful for.

Jane Overhill-Smith,

Hillcrest Avenue,

Nether Poppleton, York.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.