COUN Galloway, while admitting that he was not surprised by the result of the council tax vote, said "it did not imply that residents necessarily wanted to see big cuts in services", (January 11).

Very true, and such cuts are not necessary if the council takes a more realistic look at what is needed and affordable and what is not.

We still do not have full details of all expenditure but, again, from the Press we see it is proposed to cut £19,000 from respite care and £54,000 from mental health services for example, while still allocating £720,000 to ward committees to spend on projects which are not essential in these hard financial times.

All this ward money could be used to maintain the type of service mentioned without any real hardship to anyone. Any surplus could go towards keeping the council tax down.

It would hardly be the actions of a caring and compassionate council not do so so. How many other examples of this type of misdirected priorities are currently prevalent in the council financial thinking?

A L Dixon,

Coggan Way,

Bishopthorpe,

York.

Updated: 10:39 Friday, January 21, 2005