I note that Dorothy Long jumped to the defence of the controlling Labour group on Darlington Borough Council (HAS, Feb 11) what she has not included in her letter is that she has been part of the long-term problem for years.

Remember councillor Long has been on the left of the Labour group for years, but she failed to mention this in her letter.

Had she also looked at the facts, which she has not, it’s not the Government that has brought about the mess Darlington is in, but the Labour group on the council that has been spending as if it had won the lottery, when in fact it was the rate payers money this worthless lot was throwing around.

As I have said, we should get rid of the money bags officers who run the council, along with the councillors who claim attendance allowances, and we may just may see the light at the end of the tunnel.

For Coun Long's information we are not "the usual ill-informed" plebs, but members of the public who think the council should be held to account.

Also, has she forgotten that we are allowed free speech in the UK - something she would like to suppress when it comes to bringing out the facts about how Darlington Council is run under Labour.

Maybe one can give Coun Long some advice. She should read The Northern Echo from February 11 and see what the leader of the Tory group wrote. It's a shame that the hard facts are hard for Dot to swallow.

The truth hurts.

John Merry, Darlington.

DARLINGTON is definitely inside County Durham, so I have often wondered why it has a separate council, presumably duplicating many of the roles within the organisation covering a much wider area.

It cannot be because Darlington Borough Council provides careful financial management for local residents.

This council wasted £10m on the unwanted and unlovely pedestrian heart scheme and millions more on the 'road to nowhere'. We have no bus station; no football ground; no arts centre and soon, so it would seem, no library and no indoor market.

Still, apparently we do have 53 people at the town hall getting more than £50,000 a year and the chief executive is paid more than the Prime Minister. Council tax payers will be comforted by that as they face the highest possible increase this year.

JA Embleton, Darlington.