Considering the number of parks across York and the costs of play equipment, our Lib Dem council’s ‘parks improvement fund’ - advertised as £100,000 of public money for bids of up to £10,000 per park - was a pittance, but better than nothing (£175,000 cash boost for York playgrounds, June 22).

Separate to this, they said there was also an additional ‘needs based’ pot of £150,000 to benefit parks overdue some investment. However, instead of awarding bids based on merit, they have given almost everyone 59 per cent of what they asked for - regardless of what bids hoped to achieve.

Can the Lib Dem council explain why people should engage in bidding processes like this if they’re seemingly going to do whatever they like with the money anyway? And can they also explain why they gave money to an astonishing four different bids for just one of their own wards and how, to pay for this, they have raided £75,000 from the ‘needs based’ pot mentioned above?

In the meantime families around Westfield, and other less fortunate communities, continue to be overlooked by this council.

Mrs S. Magson, Burnsall Drive, Acomb