I suspect that parents of children attending grammar schools in the county will find Mike Appleyard’s letter in the BFP (Oct. 3) somewhat patronising.

He explains that next year the county council will have £28m less to spend and that is why the changes to school transport have to take place. He suggests that the grammar school parents, protesting about changed home to school transport arrangements, don’t understand the financial pressures that his Government have placed on local authorities. Did he really mean to say ‘…hopefully parents will start to understand the reasons why’. It’s clear to me and I’m not a grammar school parent.

Mike Appleyard’s appeal for understanding is unlikely to be greeted with much sympathy, particularly by those parents whose children who have been subjected to the new unworkable schedules. But what about those victims of Mr Appleyard’s Tory Council cuts who do not have the benefit of a powerful lobby of headteachers and an army of articulate parents? The frail elderly who have progressively seen their service cut to the point that only those who have desperate needs receive any care at all, others are now left to fend for themselves. And what about the way in which Bucks County Council resource services for vulnerable children? That’s been shown to be dangerously inadequate and it needed Ofsted to issue a damning verdict before they started to do anything about it. Who’s speaking up for these groups? Mr Appleyard does not have to face angry public meetings about his council’s cuts to these services. Mr Appleyard asks us to respond to the county council’s budget consultation, what we are expected to do is to pit one service against another. Some people will demand that potholes are filled or perhaps children’s school bus services are maintained. Who wouldn’t if your car has been damaged or your child is finding it increasingly difficult to get to school on time. Councillors engage in this annual ritual, seeking justification for yet another round of savage cuts. It’s an invidious exercise intended to give an illusion of democracy. Yes it’s all very clear to me Mr Appleyard, we have a Government that is systematically dismantling our public services and a county council that is doing all it can to help them achieve it.

Trevor Fowler, Hillary Close, Totteridge