The debate about the distribution of ward funding overlooks the simplest and biggest cost-saving solution.

Most residents forward ideas through their unpaid, mostly non-political volunteer parish councils or neighbourhood managements.

Handing the remaining miserly funding amounts directly to those bodies reduces the need for city councillors, saves time and also abolishes their expenses, and attendance allowances.

City councillors seldom fully represent all the parishes equitably within their ward. Unless they hold a cabinet post they are largely redundant.

Cutting their numbers and this particular “overweight” layer of bureaucracy would be the greatest cost saving of all.

W Lumley, Pasture Close, Skelton.

• At January’s Clifton ward committee, councillors Douglas, King and Scott resolved to resist cuts to ward committee budgets. This followed discussion of a recommendation of the York Fairness Commission and the benefits of ward funding to local community groups such as Clifton Out and About, that combat older people’s isolation.

I attended the budget-setting council meeting on 23 February and heard nothing to demonstrate that my local councillors followed through their commitment.

As we know, these budgets did not survive intact, and I am left wondering how the Neighbourhood Management Unit (posts to be cut from 15 to 8) will cope with their workload, especially given the changes to be made following the recent Cabinet meeting.

The unit have done a tremendous job behind the scenes, including preparation for ward committee meetings and the detailed support underpinning the local improvement schemes so many community groups have benefited from. So where will their reduced capacity be felt? As recently as October 2011, Cabinet pledged its support for the City of Sanctuary initiative.

This includes making York a more welcoming place for newcomers. As the NMU is to coordinate the council’s response to the initiative, will it quietly be forgotten?

Ginnie Shaw, Grunden, St Olave’s Road, Bootham, York.