MADAM - This discussion with Gerald Hartley is getting a bit futile. I would like to answer some points he made and then leave the subject.

1. He says as chairman of the overview and management scrutiny committee in Shire Hall I “would have been given the opportunity to comment on the case officers proposed” for the incinerator appeal on behalf of the county council, and he says I should share the written response I made.

This is most definitely not the case.

I have not been asked to comment on appropriate officers, nor would I expect to be, and I have made no written response.

2. He says the three councillors who co-wrote the last letter to the SNJ signed the letter with their full titles.

No, we did not.

We simply signed our names.

I assume the SNJ put our titles in.

3. He continues to talk about our “secret dealings” with the Tories.

He is wrong once again and I don’t know how many times I have to say it, but here goes.

There was no deal to prop up the Tories as he asserted before. Gerald Hartley has a remarkable knack of assuming something has happened simply because he believes it has.

May I suggest to him that he talks with me about the Labour group in Shire Hall and settle the matter once and for all.

I feel Labour and the Greens have much in common and I am puzzled by his relentless attacks on us without any foundation.

Brian Oosthuysen

Kingscourt