WE now look forward to a certain UKIP member’s regular, in fact almost weekly, publicity-seeking soundbites in the local press.

Indeed so regular are these letters and releases we are sure a certain Mr Stanbury is uncomfortably looking over his shoulder already.

In his latest offering from the Book of Easy Headlines and How to Get On In Politics he attacks the Tory administration in the Forest  because they seek to increase council tax  by one per cent.

According to this particular Councillor Idol contestant that is wrong for his ward and he quite openly  states that, instead of this tax increase, ‘discretionary’ services of the Forest of Dean Council should be cut.

Now as we have sat there for the last five years being told how grand and award-worthy they are for not raising Council Tax as all the services the Forest needed were either cut or disappeared entirely as towns and infrastructure crumbled around us, we are not against bringing the Tories to book.

But if the UKIP member bothered to seek out which services are discretionary he would see that they are such things as housing advice, the Citizens’ Advice Bureau, Meals on Wheels and Mears (home safety for the vulnerable).

The list is very, very long. These are many of the services that his and in fact all councillors’ ward members are having to rely on more and more as Tory austerity and cuts bite so viciously and start to hurt the most vulnerable in society.

These are the very things that make  being a council and perhaps even a councillor worthwhile.

So if we really are to face another four years of soundbites, posed photos and bandwagon jumping, just occasionally can they be thought through before being copied and pasted onto newspapers?

– Cllr Di Martin on behalf of the Forest of Dean District Council Labour group.