WE are all entitled to query the amount of money that’s being spent in our name by local bodies.

I wish more of us would look at the bills being paid by Herefordshire Council and ask ‘Why?’ Unfortunately few of us do and this simply means that more money will be wasted and our council tax will simply go up year after year.

Is there nowhere that savings can be made? When you visit a council office in mid-winter, is it necessary for the heating to be turned up to the point where all the staff are in shirt-sleeves?

According to my local parish council’s report in our community newsletter, councillors have just doubled their precept after spending all their reserves and they anticipate increased expenditure in the coming year.

The appointment of a new clerk has apparently necessitated the purchase of a laptop, computer software and books and there will be ‘rising costs’ for an internal and external audit of the parish council’s accounts and for a new website.

I was the clerk to this particular council for 13 years, and it was always a matter of pride that the precept didn’t have to go up, year after year, and that expenses were kept to a minimum.

It helped that, as a local resident, I would be personally affected by any increases and, as the clerk, I always tried to make a case for leaving things as they were.

Also, I personally bought five laptops, five printers and software from my own funds and was never offered a penny towards their cost.

It appears that the latest approach is that anything goes and it’ll all come out of the council tax, so why bother?

Our local parish council election was uncontested so local interest in the make-up of our parish representatives appears to be minimal.

This is all very well – but then you hear local gossip complaining about this decision or that decision and it simply fizzles out and gets forgotten. I just wish more people would get involved.

MARTIN FIELD Burley Gate