SIR – The Baildon Parish Council (BPC) has the potential to improve the lives of everyone that lives there, and has already made a good start since its formation in 2007. However, it is drastically underfunded, despite councillors taking no expenses of any kind.

The BPC has an ambitious plan, conceived by residents themselves, that would undoubtedly deliver a better quality of life, if it were ever delivered.

Unfortunately, at the moment the precept is so low, in relation to the national average, that 50p in every £1 is spent on running costs. This situation represents extremely poor value for the taxpayers’ money.

The BPC should either be fully funded or scrapped altogether.

Despite calls from the Conservative Party to stand down, I will do no such thing. Councillors should be elected by the people they wish to represent, and not other councillors.

To suggest otherwise is entirely undemocratic, and against everything I believe in. It wouldn’t happen for any other level of government, so why should it happen here?

Electors in Baildon were quite within their rights to call an election, and that is what they will get. The winning candidate will simply have to ensure they are worth it.

Ian Lyons, Baildon Liberal Democrats, Cliffe Avenue, Baildon