As Leader of Royston Town Council I would like to allay any misconceptions that members of Royston Town Council were coerced into the cooption vote held on Monday 27 April. As Councillors we all received copies of the three candidates letters of applica

As Leader of Royston Town Council I would like to allay any misconceptions that members of Royston Town Council were coerced into the cooption vote held on Monday 27 April.

As Councillors we all received copies of the three candidates' letters of application, giving all of us time to consider the options for ourselves. Anyone attending the meeting would also have heard from the two candidates present, a short account of themselves and why they should be considered.

All candidates needed to be proposed and seconded and I fail to understand Mrs Coates' comment that there was a political bias.

We are all aware of Mr Les Baker's allegiance to the Labour party, as he has been a Town and District Councillor under them. As we do not at present have any Councillors under Labour it was two of the standing Conservative Councillors that proposed and seconded Mr Baker.

There are two Liberal Democrat Councillors currently on the Town Council but as one of these was unable to attend the meeting Mr Kay was proposed by the only Liberal Democrat in attendance and it once again fell to a Conservative Councillor to second Mr Kay's candidacy. It would have been nice had Mr Kay attended the meeting and given an overview of why he should be considered, as it was, he did not.

The successful candidate, Mrs Kath Prime has over the last 40+ years helped and supported her husband, the late Cllr Bill Prime. Living with someone such as Bill, I'm sure, gave Kath plenty of insight as to the workings of local councils and what is expected of the councillors elected. I for one have every faith in that Kath will serve Royston and its residents as well as any other councillor elected.

The voting result gives another example that no one was coerced; surely if they had been it would have had a 12 to one split instead of the 9-3-1 that occurred.

I would like to close by saying that Royston Town Councillors are elected to represent and serve the residents of Royston to the best of their abilities. This is done without the influence of party politics; we are all individual but have one thing in common - Royston and its residents.

Cllr Lynn Berry

Leader Royston Town Council