SO Coun Dickinson thinks it is right to cut the funding to the voluntary sector.

The voluntary sector is a very cost-effective way of getting things done in this town.

Motivated volunteers perform an enormous range of services and functions within the town and it is essential to support them.

They do what they do because they want to and there is a need, not because they are paid to do it which is something the Tories fail to realise.

The cost of the grants the Tories are cutting is about £250,0000 a year which is equivalent to less than 7p a week on our council tax or 0.25 per cent.

The value to the council of the work of these groups is incalculable.

It is typical of the Tories to know the cost of everything and the value of nothing.

Frankly, if this is the way Coun Dickinson now feels I am glad he left the Liberal Democrats and I am sure he will feel at home in the Tories.

Coun CHRIS SHEPHERD

Leader, Liberal Democrat Group

Grange Park