READING through various councillors' election statements, I cannot find any that said that, at the first opportunity, they would vote themselves a vast pay increase.

Now that they consider that being a councillor is a job rather than a public service, I wonder if it would be possible to have some idea of the workload that is involved.

Maybe we could have tables of performance indicators for each councillor. The indicators could be based on items such as the actual number of hours spent on council business, (as opposed to party activities), the number of constituents' complaints received and dealt with, time spent contacting constituents to find out their views and how many times these views were acted on instead of their parties' desires. It could also include the number and cost of the 'freebie' (sorry, investigative research) trips, etc. to other towns and abroad.

In America, I understand that it is possible to recall a candidate during this term of office and hold a re-election. Maybe it would be a good idea if it was adopted in this country. It would certainly keep them on their toes.

How many people see their representatives other than at election times?

How many Blackburn voters were asked for their opinion on unitary status, the plans for the markets and Boulevard, etc?

G SMITH, Bold Street, Blackburn.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.