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The Pen-Pal project has been given funding from the Beeches Community Board. The project aims to help combat loneliness and create stronger links between older and younger generations.

In the Viewpoint pages of last week’s Advertiser, nearly half the letters were from councillors – including the leader of the council, and two members of his cabinet.

This is typical of a trend that has been growing over recent months.

Perhaps councillors believe these selfjustifying letters show that they are being accountable to their electors.

But lengthy and self-serving political point-scoring in a forum where there is no pushback or challenge does not deliver accountability; if anything, the reverse.

Councillors have as much right as anyone else to write to the Advertiser.

But surely the Letters pages are not intended for these one-eyed mini manifestos, and this is not the way that local political debate should be conducted.

If councillors feel they have something worth saying, or a position they need to explain or defend, they should be talking to the paper's reporting staff and encouraging them to produce news reports.

The journalists can assess their newsworthiness, gather alternative views and context, and present impartial and balanced reports to readers.

One of the functions of journalism is to hold power to account, and the Advertiser has shown itself both willing and perfectly able to fulfil that role when reporting local politics.

Its efforts are hampered if our politicians prefer grandstanding in the Letters pages, circumventing proper democratic scrutiny.

Your news reporting of the RBWM budget last week included extensive quotes from Councillor Johnson.

So why should he be allotted another

500 words on the Letters pages to make his arguments at greater length and without direct challenge or context?

I would ask the Advertiser to discourage this practice, or at the very least impose a limit on length.

Instead of printing these press releases in full, the paper should regard outpourings from councillors as prompts for potential stories for the news pages, rather than giving them a free ride in the Letters pages.

This is the only part of the paper in which the rest of us have an opportunity to share and express our views.

Can we have it back please?

JONATHAN BAKER Boulters Lane

Maidenhead Editor’s note: I would be keen to hear more views on this.

Viewpoint is, first and foremost, a forum for our readers.

As you say, councillors have always been free to write to Viewpoint (they are readers too, after all) but they may find their letters are not included or held for another week as other members of the public get priority.

This is only fair, as councillors have other outlets for their voices to be heard.

Councillors’ letters are there to be challenged, as we have seen in Viewpoint submissions over the past couple of weeks, and can often inspire healthy debate. However, I would welcome feedback from readers on what they about these submissions.

I agree with your point on brevity. Some councillors have sent me letters amounting to more than 1,000 words – either expecting them to be included in their entirety or expecting me to edit them down.

I advise correspondents to stick to 300

think

words, and will stretch to about 500 words at a push. The majority of readers can stick to these rules, so councillors should be able to do the same.