Madam,

Your article ‘Canteen losses not down to banning public’ (10 October) is interesting as it calls into question the scrutiny applied to county council expenditure in this era of austerity and swingeing cuts. It also provides a reason for excluding the public which is rather at odds with itself.

I’m certain that it’s not necessary to a have a PR background to understand how it may look, that when public services are being slashed the county council continues to subsidise canteens open to county councillors and officers but denied to the public.

Also, if excluding the public is not the cause of the canteen being £51,000 up the Swanee this year (£36,000 last year) what is the reason? They offer no explanation.

The council insists that the denial of the subsidised food to the public is for “security” reasons.

The main security issues which spring to mind are unauthorised access to the buildings and council matters being inadvertently made public.

It would not be suitable to have people wandering unchecked in the halls and corridors of the council headquarters with potentially malicious intent. However, it is a requirement that any person crossing to the restricted area must register at reception and surely going to observe a public meeting poses as great a security risk (I hope I haven’t given the county council any hints as to what to ban next).

Anyway, if so few members of the public use the canteens, as stated by the council spokesperson, then the risk of eavesdropping must be relatively low; surely it would be possible to din into the councillors and officers the duty they are under not to mention council business inappropriately.

Council tax was raised two per cent to a total of seven per cent this year on account of a shortfall in Welsh Government financing for education. This money was eventually paid and the Cabinet has redirected the extra two per cent to meet Social Services overspend. Fair play, but what funds are earmarked to cover the subsidised food losses? Have the Cabinet and the policy-making officers come up with more innovative ways of increasing canteen turnover than “raising prices”?

For example, have they considered bringing sandwiches to work or boosting Ceredigion’s economy by visiting local amenities? Or have they ignored the issue and ordered another round of tea and buns?

Either way, these are the people who make the decisions on the bigger issues which affect our lives.

Yours etc, George Holloway, Rhoshendre, Waunfawr, Aberystwyth.

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