AS a regular reader, I feel I must respond to the letter from Cornwall County Council leader David Whalley (January 20) who has obviously been stung by your accurate and reasoned leader.

I also note the succinct letter in the same issue from your contributor Mr W Barnes, of Calstock, with whom I totally agree. You run an independent newspaper promoting the interests of all Westcountry people – long may it continue.

Coun Whalley says his council is working hard to minimise council tax charges, yet has the audacity to defend or ignore waste and inefficiency.

"Your Cornwall" costs nothing to produce, he says. Who pays for collating material, the paper and printing? I have yet to meet anyone, Lib-Dem councillors apart, who considers it anything but self-promoting for him and his cohorts.

Coun Whalley fails to appreciate the vast sums of money which will be needed to staff the new authority. Apart from the extortionate salaries now being offered, there will also be the cost of compensation for existing staff who are displaced.

This epitomises the incompetence of Lib-Dem staff recruitment in recent years – most existing council staff have been appointed on their watch.

Coun Whalley conveniently forgets the costly major shortcomings in the existing council services. Both Social Services and the fire brigade have received damning reports. The fiasco at Newquay Airport has shown a lack of forward planning, vision and prudence.

If Coun Whalley and his team want to avoid an unfavourable press, the solution is easy – don't provide the ammunition to be shot at. He must put his own house in order, and trying to suppress criticism is self-destructive.

M Craddock

St Austell

Benefits of burning

RECYCLING, in principle, has to be a good idea – but trust our politicians to screw things up.

Instead of our waste paper etc. being recycled, thanks to the credit crunch the price it fetches is now so low that councils must pay extra money simply to store it (we aren't allowed by the European Union to bury it). Also, councils will soon be fined for not recycling it.

If we could burn it in power stations (the EU would allow us to do that but our officials seem oblivious to the fact) these substantial benefits would follow:

1. The volume of burnable waste we produce would provide 10 per cent of our national energy needs.

2. It has a higher calorific value than biomass, so...

3. More farmland could be returned to food production.

4. It would save us erecting 10,000 inefficient wind turbines but...

5. It would still help us meet our 32 per cent EU target of renewable energy by 2020.

6. It would attract a subsidy of £2 billion from the EU. Of course that still means it's our money, but at least our money would be available for this purpose. This means that...

7. It would a profitable venture for local councils, who could then reduce council tax.

But have Labour, Tory or Lib-Dem councils ever dreamt of helping us in this way? Not that drippy lot.

Hugh Williams

UKIP South West Devon Chairman and Parliamentary Candidate Yelverton

Animals betrayed

DID you think laboratory animals were protected? A report (released July 2008) revealed that over 3.2 million scientific "procedures" using animals were carried out in 2007 – 6 per cent up on the previous year.

No anaesthetic was used in 61 per cent of procedures, despite New Labour's pre-1997 pledge to insist on the highest possible standards of welfare in the laboratory.

More horror was revealed in a separate report by the Animals in Scientific Procedures Inspectorate – a party of 24 inspectors are called upon to monitor more than three million experiments.

New Labour has overseen a 21 per cent increase since coming into power in 1997, despite its pre-election promises to reduce the number of animal experiments. So much for such promises.

Louise Piddington

Plymouth

Reluctant partners

WE are all concerned by the tragic deaths of more of our serving armed forces.

Defence Secretary John Hutton has rightly called on our European "partners" to send some of their forces to help, as they are affected by terrorism as much as we are. Not much chance of that, I would say.

Although the UK gives the European Union around £144 million daily as the price of our "membership", not all the other 26 members are helping fight terrorism at its source. So much for the European Community being unified.

Of course this was demonstrated when the banks started to go under. No offers were forthcoming from our so-called partners across the Channel.

We must get out of this European mess before it is too late and the UK is unable to decide on its own destiny.

Peter Gove

Exeter

Network not needed

YOU reported on cost pressures hitting plans for the unitary council in Cornwall and suggested how money could be saved. May I add to your recommendations?

Abandon plans for community network areas, a pseudo third tier of local government setting out to duplicate the functions of parish and town councils.

James Biscoe

Truro

A vote for salvation

THEO Hopkins (January 23) makes a "snap judgement". Perhaps he should be answered.

Obama may not be God. Arguably, however, the US electorate have been inspired to make the only possible choice for the salvation of the world.

Whatever the source of inspiration we can but at the very least express gratitude for delivery from his predecessor.

Tim Le Grice

Penzance