Roger F Brain, of Gestridge Road, Kingsteignton, writes:

It won’t be long before we all hear the delicate ‘plop’ of election leaflets coming through the letterbox asking for your vote. They’ll be full of the usual twaddle describing how long the candidate councillor has lived in the district, how ‘passionate’ he/she is about this and that, how he/she has been ‘working hard’ on pet projects and telling us all how many kids they have and what school they go to. All of very limited interest to the average Joe but it fills up copy I guess.

I’ve never seen one of these leaflets detail the re-sitting councillors’ voting record on any big or contentious issues over the past year or so. I’ve never seen one of these election leaflets set out how they feel about the big planning/building issues which are affecting all of us and what they intend to do about them... or what their stance was on the pay-off of the old council CEO (apart from keeping quiet about it)... or council vanity projects such as funding for music festivals outside our district... or how they intend to vote when council ‘officers’ attempt to reduce our bin collections... or what they intend to do about championing a more honest and open council (no, TDC isn’t one!).

And why don’t these election leaflets detail (for sitting councillors) the amount of ‘allowances’ they are paid.

It’s not a secret but, alongside a councillor’s track record, would allow voters a judgement on whether they are seen as value for money.

Yes, I’m sure many councillors work diligently representing their constituents but it always seems to me (and I may be wrong) that many say lots of lovely things to get your vote but once they have your cross on the ballot paper collective amnesia sets in – and then they wonder why faith and trust in politicians (of whatever hue and level) has hit rock bottom.

On the other hand, maybe politics should be taken out of local government altogether – imagine how that would simplify things!