IT is interesting to note that the lesser guns of the Bromsgrove Labour Party, in the person of Councillor Brooks, are now being brought into the fray to attack my criticisms of their administration regarding the handling of the district council's reserves.

My comments obviously struck a sensitive cord. I never actually said that the reserves were reducing to £2.3m. What I said was that the reserves were raided by £2.3m during Labour's four disastrous years in office.

The details, for those who follow such matters, are that in 1995/96, the balances were raided by £926,000, followed by a raiding in the following year of £760,000.

Two further raids on the reserves followed in 1997/98 by £306,000.

And, in their final year in office in 1998/1999, the reserves were further reduced by £341,000.

This adds up to a staggering £2.3m to do nothing more than carry out schemes that were clearly unaffordable, for purely electoral purposes, although this did them no good whatsoever.

We now have to put matters right by rebuilding the reserves - one of the auditors criticisms - to a healthier level, a task that can only be achieved over a number of years.

I expect that most of your readers are now getting rather tired of these arguments, and I hope that this is the last contribution on the issue of the mishandling of the reserves by the last Labour administration.

NICK PSIRIDES,

Leader,

Bromsgrove District Council.