SIR,

I like a joke as much as the next man but when I had a leaflet pushed through my door urging me to vote Conservative at the coming local elections I struggled to see the funny side.

Having just voted en masse to inflict another 400 houses on Monmouth in defiance of public opinion, need or common sense, one struggles to see how they can keep a straight face when they claim to put the people first.

Tory councillors may be adept at electioneering but recent events have clearly shown that once elected, rather than being agents of the people in government, they become agents of government among the people.

It is the same for all of the major parties; when the whips come in, independent thinking leaves by the back door, along with the needs and concerns of the populace.

Monmouth doesn't want or need any more houses or cars or pressures on local services, yet the Conservatives disagree for reasons known only to them. They deserve to be punished for it in the only way they care about; at the ballot box.

I would urge everyone in Monmouth, regardless of loyalties at general elections, to vote for independent candidates this time.

Independent candidates have no masters but the people, they do not have to ingratiate themselves with party bosses nor do they have to follow some aloof manifesto dreamed up in Westminster or Cardiff.

We need local people who, when push comes to shove, are stubborn in their resolve to uphold and defend the interests of the people of Monmouth outside the narrow partisan world of party politics.

At the moment we do not have this and the developers are rubbing their hands together.

Gareth Dunn

(Monmouth)