I was most surprised by town councillor Derek Hodgson s letter in last weeks Comet. He started the letter by saying he must reply to my previous week s letter. This in fact concerned the threat to Jackmans Library, however Mr Hodgson did not even mention

I was most surprised by town councillor Derek Hodgson's letter in last weeks Comet.

He started the letter by saying he must reply to my previous week's letter. This in fact concerned the threat to Jackmans Library, however Mr Hodgson did not even mention the library and instead had a personal pop at me. I normally ignore personal comments of this nature but feel I must correct Mr Hodgson on some points in the letter he has written in his capacity as a town councillor.

Firstly, I was not the only truly independent candidate to stand for the town council, there were in fact three of us and only one, Les Maunders, was elected.

Mr Hodgson implies in his final paragraph that all those elected to the town council are independent. In fact 23 of the 24 elected stood under the title of Town Council Campaigner on the ballot paper. I wonder how many people who voted realised that Town Council Campaigner was registered as the official name of a minor political party with the Electoral Commission on March 5, 2005, and it was not until June 27 that the party applied to be de-registered. Therefore 23 of the current town councillors were all elected as, and campaigned as, members of the same party, not my definition of independent.

In conclusion can I suggest that Mr Hodgson uses his position as a town councillor to campaign on issues that are of concern to the people of Letchworth GC, such as the potential closure of Jackmans Library, instead of having a go at people like myself who want to give something back to the town that has done so much for them.

DAVID LEVETT, Letchworth Garden City