AS the independent councillor on St Neots Town Council, I feel that it is incumbent upon me to correct the comments about the resignation of Mrs Hopewell in your article Parties set to fight out by-elections (June 14). Mrs Hopewell told me a year ago t

AS the independent councillor on St Neots Town Council, I feel that it is incumbent upon me to correct the comments about the resignation of Mrs Hopewell in your article "Parties set to fight out by-elections" (June 14).

Mrs Hopewell told me a year ago that she would like to resign, but was pressurised by her Lib Dem colleagues to stay for fear that the Conservatives would win the seat and gain control of the council.

In the last year, Mrs Hopewell attended only three of the 33 meetings she was scheduled to attend and her resignation came in only days before she would have been excluded for failing to attend for six months.

The Lib Dems have a nerve accusing Conservative councillors of staying on after moving. I remember one Lib Dem councillor who moved away from St Neots three weeks after being elected.

I just wish that all political parties would stop sniping at each other, particularly at election time, and tell the people their plans to improve the towns they wish to represent. That's if they actually have any plans, which certainly does not seem to be the case in St Neots at present.

BOB BARNES, Independent town councillor, St Neots