Dear Sir,
The problem of non attendance of Town Councillors at Town Council meetings has been with us for some years. It does seem to me that a small town like Newton Aycliffe does not need quite so many Councillors anyway and a significant saving could be made if the numbers were reduced to 15 instead of the present 30. ( Might even lead to less bickering amongst our Councillors too. That would be a bonus).
It could be argued that even 15 would be too many. That leads to the bigger question. How many layers of government do we really need?
We have a local Town Council, then we have the County Council, with far too many County Councillors for a small county like Durham to be run effectively and efficiently. After that we have a Westminster MP and all of the political paraphernalia that goes with that position. What about reducing the number of Westminster MPs to say 300?.  Then, of course, we have an MEP for the region and behind that the huge Brussels job factory whose productivity is at best questionable. Too much red tape there I think most would agree.
In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, there is now also yet another level of bureaucracy and political egos to contend with. Do we really need the much talked about regional assembly too? Where will it all end?
All levels of political power create levels of bureaucracy at huge cost to we the taxpayers, and perhaps it is time for us all to make those on the various gravy trains much more accountable and cut the waste.
Many Councillors, MPs and MEPs are hard working and do a great job, but, sadly, far too many others are unproductive, inefficient and just plain lazy. We need to cut them out at all levels of government. That will be difficult as few of those in power at all levels will willingly be prepared to sacrifice their own positions for the public good. Just think of the public money that could be saved though if we really tackled this issue.
Tony Haworth