CALLING in consultants and setting up partnerships are much in vogue in local government circles these days.

Consultants are extensively used to lend an air of authority to any daft scheme for spending public money and can always be blamed if things go wrong. Partnerships are useful devices for muddying the waters. Elected councillors have no idea of who is actually in charge and have great difficulty in keeping tabs on what is going on, let alone what it is costing.

Now I see the "eco-lobby" is getting into the same act. A Ledbury-based consultant has been brought in to advise us on how to make the most of tourism in the Malvern Hills area (Malvern Gazette, October 12) - Can it be only two years since we were all trooping in to the Abbey Hotel, courtesy of the AONB, to hear a Bristol-based consultant on the same subject?

Richard Graves, the former countryside manager with Hereford & Worcester County Council, is masterminding the formation of a still unnamed partnership consisting of the AONB, the Conservators, the two county councils, the district council and the Countryside Agency to put us on the tourist map - who on earth will that little lot answer to, I wonder?

Not content with organic Malvern lamb, we are to have a cheese trail and a water trail and visitors will presumably be funnelled past as yet non-existent shops and cafes to visit British Camp.

There should be good opportunities for visits to the Pays Cathare in France and the Bregenzerwalde in Austria to pick up tips.

Of course it is easy to mock but wouldn't it be better to have the responsibility clearly focused on one properly qualified manager, answerable to one specific authority, with a clearly defined budget and no other duties.

These mundane considerations may not worry Mr Graves. He may now be the chairman of the Conservators but in common with nine of his colleagues, he is in the happy position of not having to pay the Conservators precept.

They do, however, worry me and they should worry every other taxpayer when they look at their tax demands. My local tax bill in 1997 was £776.23. By this year it had gone up 50 per cent to £1,163.73. It is time to put a stop to silly schemes for spending the public's money.

Before going any further let us have a few hard facts. Who is in charge? Who does he report to? What are his duties? What will it all cost? Who pays?

ALISTAIR MACMILLAN, Alexandra Lane, Malvern.