Whilst I wholeheartedly agree with Chris Stevens (Letters, February 2) that one of the main culprits is Central Government, the relatively low price of maintaining local democracy's representatives is in a much lower league.
The Lords’ outrageous daily attendance allowance of up to £332 is a much better target.
The around £100 million taken from Herefordshire Council's budgets in the last decade by the Tories' austerity policies have devastated the Council's ability to provide good services across the broad range of its responsibilities, resulting in largely only its statutory duties reasonably covered now and even that is a struggle.
This has progressively affected councils of every hue in Herefordshire but the poor old Greens are currently holding this poisoned chalice.
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Our council is suffering the same malaise as the whole of the public sector, or what's left of it, after the continuing Tory "Small State" onslaught.
Most local authorities, if not all, are in the same boat as ours.
However, being such a dispersed county and with the current way the inadequate Central Government grant to councils is calculated then we suffer more than most.
Chris Watson
Eardisland
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