A recent letter to the local papers went to great lengths to try to talk-up the record of Conservatives running Bath & North East Somerset Council. It came, not surprisingly, from a Tory councillor – Councillor Marie Longstaff. In her letter she referred to B&NES as a Tory authority that "cuts waste".

What a cheek! Most people I know consider the way her party has spent well over £40m of our money on a posh swimming pool in Bath (the Bath Spa), including millions on Spa lawyers' fees, to be a waste of the most elephantine proportions.

Not a penny of that money helped improve the services that local people need and rely on – and that councils exist to provide.

In many ways the councillor's letter is typical of the brazen way B&NES Council tries to trumpet itself – attempting to give the Tories credit for all sorts of things that have in fact been reliant on Government money.

Indeed, this smug self-congratulation doesn't just happen once in a blue moon. Councillor Longstaff's letter confirms there is a bottomless pit of B&NES Tory spin.

For example, she tries to give Tories the credit for major Government building projects that are helping professionals deliver better quality public services. We all know that in the national arena, the Tories are promising us cuts in public services NOW, right at a time when investment is most needed. Yet her letter names some local schools as B&NES triumphs, hoping we would believe B&NES Tories had anything to do with securing that investment. I vividly remember how school buildings were starved of money when the Tories were in power – crumbling buildings, huge class sizes, outside toilets – were all part and parcel of a Conservative Government.

She even claims the Tories "keep their promises". On this her letter really hit a bum note. It wasn't so long ago they were promising to bring 200 new jobs to Midsomer Norton if they took control of B&NES. Sure enough, they took control. But those 200 new jobs? Your guess is as good as mine.

For these and many other reasons it is time for us to at last see the back of all the B&NES Tories.

Amanda Cranston,

Radstock.