I WHOLEHEARTEDLY agree with media discussion on the importance of the Citizens Advice Bureau in these uncertain times.

An ounce of advice will save pounds. Those who need to use the CAB are also the ones not having a computer or other routes to finding information and advice in their hour of need. I am sure most will weather the storm with just that little bit of support from the CAB.

The media, whilst referring to the £2.6m savings on internal bureaucracy, fails to mention the millions spent on non-essentials such as food and garden waste collection, renewable energy, and the large sums given to top up shortfalls in areas that are strictly outside the council's primary responsibility but help reduce the burden on county social services, the PCT, housing associations or the Environment Agency. Whilst generosity beyond the call of duty is admirable in times of plenty, profligacy is deplorable during periods of famine.

Given that just a handful of items such as staff wages, establishment, and waste collection, take up most of the council's budget, and that there is very little left for luxuries, it is surprising how money was diverted to areas outside the council's core obligations leaving a few derisory crumbs to be fought over at full council.

In time of scarcity one needs to develop innovative ways to stretch available resources, not just talk of cuts or charges on parking and other services. The taxpayer expects essential council services free of charge.

Attention should focus on providing the basics and ways to invest savings to generate returns in future years. Millions in grants to social housing associations do not achieve that. When it is gone, it is gone.

I see helping the CAB and the Youth Forum, as investment in the Forest's future, much more than a token hydro-power generator in a drainage pond or collecting garden and food waste from those living in country lanes with land to compost at home.

A little investigative journalism on the part of the Forest media would have helped expose the distorted priorities which many councillors outside the cabinet find baffling.

– Cllr Venk Shenoi, (Churcham and Huntley).