I FOUND the letter (May 28) from Councillor Connie Fitzgerald very nasty, even malicious, and was surprised to see that she was indeed the author, such was the spiteful tone.

She says it was "nice" of me to be the agent for an Asian candidate, which could be seen as a very patronising attitude to take to people of Pakistani heritage.

I did not refer to ethnicity in my letter, but wrote as the agent of Azhar Mahmood, the Conservative candidate who lives in Redvales Ward, and who I am convinced would have made a worthy councillor for his ward. Though it was not mentioned by me in my thank-you letter to helpers and supporters, she chose to stress his Asian origins.

Coun Fitzgerald went on to introduce the now notorious joke, made by the Congleton MP at a rugby club dinner in Cheshire, which referred to Pakistanis in less than flattering terms. She seemed to be acting in poor taste here, repeating the joke in order to make me, in some way, guilty by association. Ann Winterton apologised for her joke; will Coun Fitzgerald apologise for her racialist repetition?

Coun Fitzgerald then described her ward colleague, Coun Chaudry, as "an excellent councillor", whereas in my letter I did not even criticise Coun Chaudry's performance. I will not begin to argue with her on an individual's strengths and weaknesses, except to say that the Labour Party must have a different understanding of the meaning of the word "excellent".

I repeat that on a disappointing night for the Conservatives regionally, Redvales was "a great result on which to build", moving from some 400 votes to more than 1,000, increasing the share of the vote by seven per cent against an incumbent Labour councillor, apparently defined as "excellent", which says a lot about just how good the Conservative candidate was.

Azhar is a local man of integrity, known and respected in the community, and it was, I now realise, "nice" to be his agent!

COUNCILLOR

ROY-E WALKER

Conservative agent,

Redvales ward.