In his letter, Cllr Michael Bucknor refers to Mrs Lay’s loss of her Council seat and asks: “What price democracy?”

In his letter, Cllr Michael Bucknor refers to Mrs Lay’s loss of her Council seat and asks: “What price democracy?”

Michael Bucknor’s letter is chock full of misleading statements, but this question is worth answering. The answer to his question is: “One phone call.”

All that the Cllrs Mr and Mrs Bucknor, or Cllr Alan Lay, needed to do was make a single phone call to the Leader of Town Council saying: “Brenda Lay has fallen foul of the six month rule, can we co-opt her back on again?”

I do not imagine anybody would have minded that at all. But Michael Bucknor did not make that call and nor did anybody else.

Instead, they called an election, almost immediately. So now we have an expensive by-election. And you may notice that the UKIP candidate is not Brenda Lay, but Paul Clapp. You do not have to be a master detective to put these things together.

STEVE TIERNEY

Via email