Re: The decision by Conservative councillors to stage a walkout during a Wycombe District Council meeting last week.

YOUR leader writer was clearly misled in his column last week ("Tories acted like petulant children", BFP comment, October 30).

At the last full council meeting of Wycombe District Council on October 25, the hypocrisy and undemocratic behaviour of the ruling Lib/Lab pact reached new heights.

The principle of proper electoral representation was at stake.

Within a period of two months, the sole elected member for Little Marlow, Cllr Bill Jennings, was not appointed to two liaison committees, which are concerned only with Little Marlow matters.

The controlling Lib/Lab pact insisted that the places should go to their own nominees, despite the fact that Cllr Jennings has almost 20 years' experience of serving the Little Marlow electorate and knows the local issues intimately.

The Little Marlow Residents' Association was so concerned about this at their recent annual meeting that they wrote to the chief executive of Wycombe District Council seeking clarification of why Cllr Jennings could not present their case and be properly informed on local issues.

They wonder why they are voting at all in local elections.

The Conservative councillors had a right to expect these concerns to be addressed by the Lib/Lab pact at the full council meeting.

The justifiable disquiet of the residents of Little Marlow was ignored. No response was forthcoming.

Such an abuse of power bodes ill for our community.

No one has a greater interest than me in police funding, having suffered two burglaries and the theft of my car.

On behalf of the Conservative Group, I had tabled a written question to the full council meeting concerning the action to be taken on the loss of 30 officers and 20 civilian staff from our police area.

We received a written response, outlining the approaches to be made to the chairman of the Thames Valley Police Authority and the Chief Constable to express the district's concern.

We support these non-controversial initial first steps.

It is easy, however, for the Lib/Lab councillors to posture and pontificate on police funding for which they have no direct responsibility, while evading the issues of democracy for which they alone are accountable.

Sadly, your newspaper has aided them in this.

At all times, we are a constructive opposition, opposing decisions which we do not believe are in the best interests of our local electorate, while supporting those which will benefit our residents.

There are occasions, when a firm stand must be taken and we shall continue to resist actions not in the interests of the people we represent.

Cllr Mrs Pam Priestley

Leader of the

Conservative Group

Wycombe District Council

Queen Victoria Road

High Wycombe

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