As a North Herts District Council resident for many years before the North Herts District Council came into existence I was interested to read the letter in last week s edition of The Comet from John Robinson, Strategic Director Customer Services. In it h

As a North Herts District Council resident for many years before the North Herts District Council came into existence I was interested to read the letter in last week's edition of The Comet from John Robinson, Strategic Director Customer Services.

In it he said that the NHDC had asked the police to investigate not only the display of banners in Hitchin but also a series of criminal acts.

Speaking only for myself, I would like the police to investigate what a Strategic Director Customer Services actually does? Presumably, as Mr Robinson is the director, he has a number of staff reporting to him.

I am a customer of the NHDC and I cannot recall ever having heard of Mr Robinson and his merry band. Little wonder that our community charges go up by more than inflation year after year when we have to pay for people such as a Strategic Director Customer Services and his staff.

Perhaps if the post of Strategic Director Customer Services, together with that of his staff, was abolished there would be enough money in the kitty to pay the thousands of pounds which Mr Robinson says the council taxpayers are going to have to fork out for the repair of the criminal damage. And who knows, there might be enough money left over to avoid a rise in the community charge next year. But then I have to admit - I have never seen pigs flying!

DOUGLAS KING, Grovelands Avenue, Hitchin

* On May 3 we are asked to elect councillors to represent us on the NHDC.

Is there any point? It has been obvious for a long time that councillors are there merely to act as spokespersons for the officials who actually govern us. This is nowhere better exemplified than in Hitchin, where an alliance of council bureaucrats and developers are engaged in the despoliation of the town centre. In Letchworth the NHDC officials, enraged at their failure to prevent the establishment of a Town Council, are engaged in a campaign of obstruction of that council's legitimate actions.

In this they are assisted by the sinister Standards Board for England which now decides what elected councillors may or may not do and say.

In short, our so-called representatives have been emasculated and, with exceptions, accept their generous allowances, keep quiet, and simply nod their heads in agreement to anything put before them by their employees. Why should we bother to vote for them?

PETER ROBBINS, Meadow Cottages, Caldecote, Baldock