JOHN MITCHELL, of Clarence Hill, Darmouth writes:

I was angered to read your headline last week 'Bloom trip fuel claim questioned.' Cllr de Galliani as town council representative of Britain in Bloom attended the presentation ceremony to accept a number of trophies of behalf of the council.

If her fellow councillor, Les Barnes, considers the success of those of the bloom team of so little consequence that their representative should not attend the award ceremony, then perhaps he should step forward and say so.

If not, I suggest that he should consider more carefully his sniping at his fellow councillor. Perhaps he should realise too that such pettiness damages the standing of his council in the eyes of the electroate and will do little to encourage a new intake of quality to join the council.

Now I want to take up with the newspaper the way you sensationalised the so-called story. The headlines would be expected to be followed by a story of serious wrong doing. The story though is of a councillor who gave up a good deal of her own time, drove a difficult and boring 85 miles, paid from her own pocket the attendence charge and charged mileage as permissible.

Come on! Lets have a better quality of reporting, more harmony within the town council and an acceptance that the bloom team's hardwork adds greatly to the beauty of the town.