IT is typical of the Lib Dems to brush aside the real concerns of your readers over what Lewisham Labour and its Lib Dem partners do with our council tax.

Councillor Matthew Huntbach says the figures are of public record and brushes aside Mr and Mrs Larter's concern on the basis they can read council papers.

The facts could not be further from the truth. The published council figures do not openly show the huge interest paid for years of council mismanagement.

They fail to disclose the huge sums spent on producing the glossy council propaganda sheet, Lewisham Life, the £50 million not collected in council tax or the huge amount of money lost from hundreds of council properties sitting empty across the borough.

The problem for Labour and the Lib Dems is when they are in power they have a dismal record of offering good value- for-money services with low council tax.

The councils with the worst service levels and the highest council tax are Lib Dems, followed by Labour.

It is not by chance all London's Conservative councils have been voted by the Audit Commission as the top 10 councils for service and value for money in the UK.

Residents may well ask how the Conservatives can deliver quality services in Wandsworth and yet only charge £580 a year council tax for Band D properties, twice what we pay under this administration.

Only Conservatives in office at council level will bring about a truly open, less expensive, quality administration.

Look at other Conservative areas and see how well we run councils. It could be so much better but you need to vote to bring about change.

Can News Shopper readers afford another four years of Labour?

Ray Woolford
Vice-chairman
Lewisham Conservatives