Your Headline reveals the Tories blaming David Drew for persuading the tenants to vote 'no' to housing transfer. This is only part of the story in which at least £200,000 of local Council Tax money has been wasted. Money that could have been much better spent on building badly needed new affordable houses. It's a sorry tale.

First prize for wastage should go to central government (Labour) - who have created a system in which housing benefit money paid by Council tenants is continually sucked out of our area, rather than being spent on repairs and improvements. In contrast housing associations are allowed to reinvest this money. This has created the un-level playing field and a crisis in Stroud's housing budget.

Second prize goes to the Stroud District Council leadership (Conservative) who were so keen for the tenants to vote 'yes' that they spent loads of money on publicity and deluged tenants in paper and videos while trying to censor councillors who might want to present a different picture. A different un-level playing field was created.

Third prize for wastage goes to David Drew (Labour), who waited until the vote was underway before sending out a letter to tenants. Instead of addressing the principle of the un-level playing field and the money being sucked out of Stroud, all he said was 'not yet'. This doesn't address the root cause of the problem and will probably mean even more money being waisted in future.

Stroud needs high quality and affordable Council Housing, Housing Association Housing and houses to buy. This is what the Council should be concentrating on. The two big parties need to get their act together and deliver this, or be replaced by the smaller parties who can.

Martin Whiteside, Hillside, Claypits Lane, Lypiatt, Stroud, Glos. GL6 7LU.
District Councillor and Green Party Parliamentary Candidate.