I would like to take the opportunity to reply to the letters and the story in last week's Gazette in which concerns were expressed about the annual full town council meeting held on Monday May 9.

Firstly, I would like to publicly apologise if anybody was upset by the way the meeting was conducted. However, it is to be remembered that as councillors, we were there to carry out the business of the council as outlined in the agenda presented to us by the town clerk.

The agenda asked us to, amongst other things, vote on the election of the town Mayor, and to discuss and adopt some minutes as a resolution.

Nobody voted against the new Mayor, however, for differing reasons, three of us abstained. This is democracy.

We later debated matters on a set of minutes that we were being asked to adopt. It was the only opportunity that the full town council would have to discuss these minutes before we were bound by the matters recommended in them.

Do you really want your councillors to agree on everything without question, and then to also vote 'as one'? If so, you have elected the wrong person.

Perhaps in future years we should separate Mayor making from the business of a normal town council meeting. We can have a civic celebration and 'investiture' of a new Mayor as a totally separate occasion. No voting (after all the Mayor is selected some weeks beforehand), and no business to conduct.

There is no reason that I am aware of that we have to also have a full town council meeting at the same time. Why not have the celebration, followed the next evening or soon afterwards by the annual town council meeting? Tradition is one thing, hampering democracy is another matter altogether.

Coun R Allen

(Independent, Marlborough East)

Marlborough