I WAS surprised at the tone of the letter in last week s Crow from County Councillor Doug Drake. The letter Cllr Drake refers to was addressed to the chief executive of Herts County Council, copied to Cllr Drake out of politeness and to the local press,

I WAS surprised at the tone of the letter in last week's Crow from County Councillor Doug Drake.

The letter Cllr Drake refers to was addressed to the chief executive of Herts County Council, copied to Cllr Drake out of politeness and to the local press, as I consider it important to make the pubic aware when I have concerns over wasteful public expenditure.

I have yet to receive a detailed response from the chief executive.

The letter did not criticise the actions of Cllr Drake, who works hard for Royston, but did criticise the management processes of the county council.

Clearly, in any organisation when mistakes have been made there needs to be a review of why they happened and what can be done to ensure there is no repeat.

The person or organisation that has not made a mistake does not exist, but successful organisations recognise their mistakes and take steps to prevent recurrence.

In my view, the recent work on Baldock Road was unnecessary and wasteful of the council's resources.

The risk of flooding on that section of Baldock Road was low and there are many other areas where flooding is a serious problem where the money could have been better spent.

I will continue to express my opinions, particularly when I consider the public should be aware of the waste of their money.

ROD KENNEDY

Town Councillor

Royston Heath Ward

COUNTY Councillor Doug Drake seems to threaten (Postbag, July 19) that the county council will block funding to Royston unless town councillors remain silent on concerns they may have about appropriate uses of public money.

I would suggest to Cllr Drake that this sort of ransom appears undemocratic and quite worrying.

TIM MILLER

Downlands, Royston