CAN it be true? Do West Worcestershire Conservative Association really plan to complain about the way that the recent Malvern Town Council co-options were done? (Malvern Gazette, June 23).

The Town Council co-options were done by secret ballot - so how can the local Tory chairman possibly know whether or not any Conservative co-option candidate attracted a vote from outside the Council's conservative group? How does the local Tory chairman know who voted for whom? The co-option process itself had a respected independent observer, so what grounds has the Tory party for describing the final result as "a stitch up"? Are the Tories trying to make some sort of 'political football' out of this on-issue?

Anyway, why have the co-options become the business of the local Tory party or its chairman? The five Conservatives on Malvern Town Council are decent, able councillors. They are perfectly capable of speaking their own minds on this matter if they are uneasy about the result. Why should the need their party national machine to speak out for them?

Are Tory party politics to become part of the business of our Town Council?

COUN GRAHAM MYATT, Cockshot Road, Malvern.