DEAR editor,

It is with some regret that I have to point out the continued misleading claims of Focus Barry co-ordinator Dennis Harkus in regards to the number of Vale of Glamorgan councillors wishing to see a reduction in Welsh councils, local councillors and politicians in general.

It seems that Dennis almost on a weekly basis now writes to the press claiming that only one Vale councillor has been willing to confront what he describes as the "self interest of the political parties in this matter while others who may hold a similar view are keeping their heads below the parapet."

Dennis presumably bases his assertion on the vote held by Vale of Glamorgan councillors expressing opposition to proposals merging the Vale with Cardiff Council in which only one councillor voted his support of such a proposal.

For Dennis to extrapolate from this and repeatedly claim through the press that all other Vale councillors are opposed to a reduction in the number of councils and councillors is nothing short of disingenuous and highly misleading.

I am on minuted record of Vale of Glamorgan council meetings as giving my stated opinion that it is my dearest wish to see a reduction in the number of politicians throughout the country.

I am opposed specifically to a merger between Cardiff and the Vale as I believe that the Vale’s interests will be overwhelmingly disregarded by a majority of representatives from a larger Cardiff conurbation base. In fact I believe that the green acres of the Vales will be regarded as nothing more than a building site for the expansion of a greater Cardiff.

I am also on record as stating that anyone who is a long term resident of my Sully and Lavernock ward, Barry or Penarth for example will over the very recent past have lived in Glamorgan, South Glamorgan, Vale of Glamorgan and presumably shortly, Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan without ever having moved a yard.

Which suggests to me only one thing, that those proposing these mergers over many years haven’t got a clue what they're doing whilst costing the rate payers a fortune in redundancies and massive pay-offs to senior staff who unsurprisingly soon seem to pop back up on the public payroll in another well paid public sector role thus raising the question of exactly how much is actually being saved by these mergers before yet another one is proposed and enacted.

I would like to see the business plan and rationale with concrete financial forecasts before the Vale is subsumed by the neighbouring highly inefficient Cardiff council.

Having personally spoken to Dennis Harkus on this very subject explaining my position, I find it disappointing that he continues to peddle his highly misleading claims which I can only presume are driven by his own political agenda.

Kevin Mahoney,

Councillor Sully and Lavernock ward,

Vale of Glamorgan Council