COUN Fraser's letter shows his usual naivety (January 19).

Trying to delude readers by repeating cheap, superficial slogans, he lives in the hope that saying something often enough will make someone believe him. Hence his frequent mentions of the Council "mismanaging its budget" and vague claims about the Liberal Democrats' "pet projects".

Yet, when the council met last February to decide this financial year's budget, Labour proposed to reduce planned expenditure on only three of the Liberal Democrats' initiatives:

u reducing the parks and open space maintenance budget by £50,000

u deleting £100,000 from the York Pride budget for improving the appearance of the city

u deleting the reduced fare pensioners' and disabled persons' bus pass at a saving of £350,000.

If the Liberal Democrat initiatives are the "pet projects" that Coun Fraser finds so offensive, we are happy to support them. We are proud of our city and want it to be maintained to high standards.

We also value our senior citizens and will continue to give priority to their needs.

Significantly, Coun Fraser and his Labour colleagues failed to challenge the additional investment that we are making in repairing our roads and footpaths.

And they didn't argue about our programme to reverse the years of neglect evident in many of our schools, youth clubs, swimming pools, homes, depot facilities and offices.

But one proposal that Labour did conjure up without any prior warning was to make ill-defined cuts in the numbers of staff working on budgets, commercial activities and planning.

This would have meant sacking at least ten staff with only five weeks' notice and without any prior consultation with representative unions such as UNISON.

As Coun Fraser works for UNISON, he might have had some explaining to do if his party's half-baked idea had come close to fruition.

Coun Ian Cuthbertson,

Chair, Social services and health scrutiny board,

Plainville Lane,

Wigginton,

York.

Updated: 11:08 Monday, January 24, 2005