Why does Mr Tierney, Wisbech town councillor and career politician, keep on blathering on about how many hours he works for free? Does he really not realise that this is what volunteers do.

Volunteers give their time, knowledge, experience and skills for free for the good of the community and individuals within it. And there are hundreds of us in and around Wisbech working hundreds of hours, even those fortunate enough to be in full time paid employment.

At Mr Tierney’s age, when I was a councillor for Peterborough City Council, we were responsible for a city of 170,000 people, and as chairman of resources I was responsible for all the finance, property and personnel for the City of Peterborough.

At the same time I commuted to London every day, and worked full time for the London Borough of Islington, managing seven homeless hostels with 650 beds, and 72 staff.

During the same period, I stood for Parliament for Peterborough and for the European elections for North East London, as well as serving on many organisations as a highly motivated and active volunteer.

There are hundreds of volunteers in and around Wisbech doing so much excellent work for the local area, and frankly I don’t see them making a song and dance about it. Even the local Freemasons amongst whose ranks are such illustrious dignitaries as Alister Hopkins, Jonathan Farmer and Nick Meekins give their time freely to raise funds for charitable causes.

So please stop blathering on Mr Tierney about how hard you work for us, and do something that might actually make a difference like supporting the rail link between Wisbech and March to bring Wisbech, and the local rural area, back to its former glory as the ‘Capital of the Fens’?

ERBIE MURAT

Guyhirn