Part of weakness of council culture

Dear Sir,

Coun Les Gilbert in his response to Mathew Proctor's letter concerning the air monitoring scandal in last week's Chronicle states: "Elected members are not involved in the dayto-day operational delivery of council services."

Might I suggest that that is part of the weakness of Cheshire East's culture at present.

Though I am all for allowing officers to get on with their jobs there is a fine dividing line between not getting in the way and showing some concern for the day-to-day running of the council.

The council is a political body and as such responds to the political climate of the day.

In my view, councillors who do get involved in the running of their portfolio earn and receive a greater amount of respect from the relevant officers.

Even officers are human and a high wage does not necessarily result in complete commitment to the job as recent revelations have revealed.

Yours faithfully,

(DR) PETER HIRST

Middlewich