I AM sorry the mayor and the town council are tired of the constant criticism of Malvern residents.

Perhaps if the council had remembered when it first came into being that it was merely a parish council, and had 'cut its coat according to its cloth' and refrained from spending vast sums of other people's money on unnecessary offices and staff, it would not now be in the firing line!

I see we are asked by the mayor to "put up or shut up" (Your Letters, February 28).

I was a parish councillor for 10 years in the Wells, so am not totally ignorant of the time and effort that voluntary and unpaid councillors put in. However, since the imposition by central government of the so-called Code of Conduct for Parish Councillors (which incidentally is far more rigorous than that which is applied to MPs) I am not prepared to stand as a candidate.

Furthermore it does no harm for someone to stand outside the tent and fire in, otherwise politicians at whatever level, simply assume that the voters are happy with their rulers!

M G JACKSON, Alexandra Road, Malvern.