Box ticking

You report that councillors were shocked when ‘‘transport bosses’’ told them that essential roadworks would not start for another 12 months. Sorry to mention it, but when I was a councillor we told the staff what to do and when.

The relationship has been reversed, and in my view this has only happened because fulltime councillors depend solely on their jobs and dare not stand up for ratepayers lest they lose their incomes, being just there to tick off what they are told.

John Burn, Merivale