SIR – At last we now know why our MP has done nothing to help secure better funding for Worcester.

If Worcester fails financially, he will have gone a long way towards achieving his aim of engineering a unitary authority for the region sucking in Malvern, Wychavon, Wyre Forest, Droitwich, Redditch and Bromsgrove into one enormous bureaucratic machine.

Mike Foster has forgotten that his duty is not to represent government to the people of Worcester, but that he was elected to represent us and our interests to his government.

He omits to tell you that the estimated savings are not based on a sound researched business case, and that they might apply only if all authorities are sucked in. He fails to tell you how much it would cost to set this mammoth authority up in the first place and who would pay.

He fails to point out that your local representation will be severely diminished, that your local councillors will be reduced by some 75 per cent and decisions would be made by councillors from all seven authorities who have no local knowledge of say, Nunnery, Arboretum, Gorse Hill, St Johns or Rainbow Hill.

And what a pity, too, that Mike Foster cannot even treat an opponent with at least a modicum of respect as a person, rather than resort to derogatory and personal innuendo.

DAVID CLARK,

City Councillor and Cabinet Member.