WE supposedly live in a democratic society but not where local politics are concerned.

The council paid over £30,000 for survey on car parking, not by asking you the voters, but by paying a consultant who compared Mitcheldean with Ledbury to explain how much money could be generated.

The voters could have told them that very rarely does anybody go to Mitcheldean and stay for more than an hour.

Then they find that the machines cost over £3,000 each. Then they will need to employ someone to empty the machines and issue penalty tickets.

Even some councillors expect it to be a loss making project which is why the majority of councillors are against charging. The voters have responded to the council by overwhelmingly rejecting the idea. So that's the end of it then?

Well no. A cabinet within the council have the power to force this nonsense through and it is going to happen. There's democracy for you and all the time the council continues to waste our money.

Look into the council's affairs and very soon the average voter could see many ways of saving money. What about the full page 'good news' advert they publish in the local press. They publicise how much they are doing for us but hide the real facts. This must cost a lot.

Sorry editor, but you might at least cajole them into making the full page ad useful by threatening to point out it's deficiencies alongside the ad.

Then there's the huge amount of paperwork sent out most days to each councillor. It's heavy stuff and must cost a fortune to post so much so that in the course of a year the money saved would be more than the car parking charges are supposed to bring in. Most councillors visit Coleford once a week and could pick up their post in their individual boxes they have there.

One more thing, Foresters have a reputation for standing up to unfair bureaucracy, not by writing letters but by taking direct action. I can see this going from a mild refusal to pay the charges to a drastic action of damaging the machines beyond repair.

– The Dreamer (name and address supplied).