HEAR ALL SIDES.

(From The Northern Echo)

NE ASSEMBLY YOUR correspondent J Routledge (HAS, Nov 19) claims that elected councillors have no right to sit on the North East Assembly. This is nonsense.

If J Routledge was correct, councillors would have no right to sit on police and fire authorities, for example, and should be removed forthwith, thus denying local people any form of democratic representation on these important bodies.

The fact is that councillors provide a vital link between their own communities and the large number of other organisations that act in the public interest.

My own district council, Wear Valley, elects members to over 70 local, regional and national bodies. They include Age Concern, Coalfields Communities Campaign, Durham Rural Community Council, Local Government Association, Market Towns Initiative, North Pennines Partnership, Sure Start, Tidy North, Victim Support, West Durham Groundwork Trust.

Removing democraticallyelected …