I WISH to whole-heartedly agree with Ken Lacey, chairman of Weston and District Senior Citizens Forum, in his article on August 21, regarding his call for the reduction

I WISH to whole-heartedly agree with Ken Lacey, chairman of Weston and District Senior Citizens Forum, in his article on August 21, regarding his call for the reduction in the number of MPs and local councillors. I too believe that some of them are only there for the 'tea and biscuits' and the prestige.I have served as a volunteer on the South Ward Neighbourhood Management Partnership (SWNMP) for one year. This quango has £3.7m to be spent on regeneration projects on the South Ward. On that panel are three labour councillors and I experienced the same as Mr Lacey. In my opinion only one councillor out of the three made any positive contributions at the meetings. The other two aided the rubber stamping by not contributing in any discussions and became 'nodding-dogs' to the manager who progressed her own vision/agenda of what she considered to be the right way to go. I have no axe to grind with these two councillors as I know they have their hearts in the right place. However, if you are in politics you must act by sword and deed to benefit the people that you represent. Sometimes this can mean confrontations and disagreements but this is all part of politics and it can be dirty as I have found to my cost.DAVID TINAY - Dunster Crescent, Weston