I find it quite revealing to see how the leaderships of the various Conservative Associations across Bucks use and abuse the support they have from the traditional Tory electorate.

It is known and assumed that the faithful will vote Conservative irrespective of the chosen candidate and, sure enough, Bucks has been solidly blue for many years.

But are the leading Tory cliques of the five Bucks local authorities representing the electorate who faithfully return them to office?

I have been a member of Aylesbury Vale District Council for 15 years.

I am, however, increasingly concerned by the way leading Conservative members of the council manipulate democracy, stifle debate and use their own backbench members to create a culture that may be more about maintaining personal power bases than representing the people of the Vale.

Tory backbenchers are being cajoled into supporting their leaderships by threat of sanction and/or expulsion. This unhealthy situation also seems to prevail at Chiltern and Wycombe District Councils, and it needs attention from the only people who can sort it out – you, the electorate.

As for me, while my natural political territory is to the right of centre, I will remain proudly Independent of these political manoeuvrings and will continue to represent people, not any inward-looking political party. I will continue to argue that the five Bucks councils, their five sets of administration, their 248 councillors and their comfortable leaderships should be rationalised to just one efficient authority.

By the way, your readers should be told that the newly formed Task & Finish Group that was recently set up by the AVDC Finance & Services Scrutiny committee to look at the pros and cons of a Bucks Unitary Council, was on Wednesday, April 9, squashed by senior Tory members before there was a single word of debate.

Perhaps Cllr Blake (leader) and/or Cllr Mrs Blake (Tory spokesperson against Unitary) and the other Bucks leaders, would like to reply to this letter and tell us exactly why our local government structure should remain unchanged?

Cllr Peter Cooper, Independent, AVDC Wingrave ward