Madam,

I was rather surprised to read in last week’s Cambrian News a letter from Ian MacIntyre, in which he bemoaned the lack of candidates standing in the council elections next month. There are a couple of points I’d like to clear up for him.

Firstly (as he well knows) he was himself a candidate standing against me in the Llangelynnin Ward until he withdrew his nomination papers at the last minute, thus depriving myself and the electorate in the area a democratic election. He goes on to point out that there are no Labour councillors in Meirionnydd.

Has he shot himself in the foot perhaps? Maybe he should have concentrated his efforts on questioning the reason why so few people put themselves forward for election, but then you can’t force people to stand, just as you can’t force them to vote!

Mr MacIntyre goes on to mock the purpose of Independent politicians, denouncing them as mere ‘local champions’ (and I assume he includes me in this group).

Without wishing to teach Mr MacIntyre how to suck eggs, in local government local people actually want a councillor who champions their local issues. Indeed, I have lost count of the number of people who have said to me that party politics should have no place in local government.

In short, Mr MacIntyre’s letter reveals his lamentable ignorance of the Independent group on Gwynedd Council. We are the second largest group, with a strong collective sense of fairness and accountability to the electorate, without the constraints of a party Whip.

Whilst I admire Mr MacIntyre’s obvious enthusiasm for the Labour party, he might do well to equip himself with the facts before publicly decrying anyone with an alternative political perspective to his own. With this in mind I would like to invite him to attend the next full council meeting in Caernarfon on Thursday, 18 May, where he will receive a warm welcome from the Independent group.

Yours etc,

Louise Hughes, county councillor, Llangelynnin Ward, Llanegryn.

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