AFTER reading Councillor Nigel Hick's letter regarding the Crabbs Cross by-election (Advertiser, March 12), I feel I must reply.

The people of Crabbs Cross deserve better than the ramblings of Mr Hicks and his Liberal Democrat colleagues.

Every resident of this country is concerned about what could happen in Iraq and to try to use this situation to get political gain is disgraceful.

It is, however, typical of the Liberal Democrats.

This by-election, called by Labour, is a complete waste of taxpayers' money.

To wait another four weeks would have saved the Redditch taxpayer over £3,000.

I know there are concerns about how Redditch is run and they must be addressed.

The voters of Crabbs Cross are in the best position to give this Labour administration their verdict on their 20 years of mismanagement than anyone else and let's hope that on April 3 they do just that.

Arjamand Farooqui

Riverside