WHEN I heard that Cllr Ian Carr had received the MBE I thought, “How low can the political elite go?”

All that Cllr Carr, as leader of TVBC had achieved for the people of Andover was to assist their town to lose its identity ie ‘A Market Town’ by no assistance given to shopkeepers or owners. This has resulted in a lot of shop closures and determent of visitors by the closure and demolishment of the town’s toilets.

When you compare the unpaid devotion to the people of not only Andover but the whole of Hampshire when, according to letters and comments in earlier editions of the Advertiser, Peter Sumner saved not only Andover hospital but indeed the people of Andover and the surrounding area by preventing British Vita from setting up in Andover.

If Mr Sumner had not been so outspoken (he is an ex-soldier, calling a spade a spade) and not upsetting the political elite, I wonder what they would have asked for him — a knighthood — but then I very much doubt if he would have accepted it because, for many a time when queried as to why he didn’t claim allowances he’d reply, “I’m not there to milk the system. I regard it as an honour to serve the people.”

A McCabe, Mornington Close, Andover.