I AM writing at the end of the Local Democracy Week, and during the Government-induced petrol crisis. I am not enamoured by this special week as I have presumed that the other 51 weeks of the year are divided into 'Do As You Are Bloody Well Told' weeks, or 'Kindly Approve What We Have Decided' weeks.

From the detailed letter from N.J. Lewis and others, the council is already up to its underhand New Labour tricks in order to obtain acceptance of its disreputable government-induced Local Plan. As I have already written there is no necessity for any further building in the Forest other than to fulfil New Labour's desires to create a continuous urban sprawl for commuters, as it is bent on bringing in 100,000 immigrants per annum.

The Local Plan is outlined in 'The Missing Link' – sorry – 'The Forest Link' that occasional but unnecessary waste of effort, printing ink and rainforests which is full of 'mission statements,' plans, goals, strategies etc. New Labour is so good at these things.

There is even a 'Strategy Directorate' headed by Tony Wisdom, formerly Communications Officer, but promoted with a commensurate but entirely unearned salary increase. To give us thick Forest rusties some helpful hints, there is a Local Agenda 21 Co-ordinator, named Sue Parkinson. There are also Rural Beat Officers in sponsored cars who presumably graduated from the RFDC in African Drumming.

Your admirable correspondent Adsum must have added several new entries to his list of idiotic council titles. We also have at Government insistence a Chief Value Officer, plus an assistant who are working at the Shire Hall, and who are both paid at slightly more than the National Minimum Wage. I could recommend where they start in their brief to give the taxpayers value for money.

For in spite of all these plans, strategies etc, in spite of all the verbiage, colour supplements and flysheets issued by fancy titles from the Drones Club in Coleford High Street, our roads are daily deteriorating into cart tracks; bus and refuse services are becoming more haphazard; recycling centres are overflowing because the council-appointed contractors are blatantly inefficient, school and ambulance services are grossly underfunded; the police presence throughout the Forest is risible as crime and hooliganism (hallmarks of Blair's Britain) soar; but the inmates of the Drones Club proliferates.

Value for money and Local Democracy Week are just so much hypocritical cant. Would anyone like to start a book on the percentage increase in council tax next year? – Cy Roberts, Forsdene Walk, Coleford.