SOME councils are progressive, some regressive, some just aggressive.

However, in certain instances we have, as I see it, and I don't believe that I am alone, a privy council.

That is to say that more often than not they can't see outside the box because they appear to be locked in the closet, a direct comparison to that inability to listen, otherwise known as selective hearing.

For example, with that stock reply to most requests for anything worthwhile which needs funding, we are repeatedly advised "there is no money". Yet the list of essential projects, vital, necessary, even critical, get overlooked, while the unessential, less important get full attention.

Priority is not a word in the corridors of power's vocabulary when it comes to public needs. It is alleged that they, not we, sold short the old cattle market site. Then there was the grand, but not essential, entrance to our/their offices in Plough Lane.

Add the £120,000 road improvements at the top of Bridge Street, Hereford, and the ageing shell opposite the Old House. Perhaps not directly their fault but indicative of the logic behind the council's strategy. There again it has kept the plywood and paint industry in business.

The list is endless.

RON PRITCHARD Kenchester