HAVING attended several Test Valley Borough Council and committee meetings, it is clear that we, the residents of the Test Valley Borough Council area, are being dictated to by an undemocratic council.

The council is controlled by a committee called the Cabinet (a system offered to local councils by the then Prime Minister Tony Blair and eagerly accepted and adopted by the ruling party, giving them absolute control of the council).

This is a committee of nine or less councillors (for a long time it has been seven) and they are in turn controlled by one man.

They have introduced a ‘three minute rule’ which throws democracy out of the window, as a councillor is only allowed to speak once on any one topic for up to three minutes, and they have the audacity to label it a debate.

If only we could return to genuine independent councillors who regard it as an honour to serve the people instead of a means to further their political career, or putting their hands up as and when they are told to line their pockets with attendance allowances.

Peter Sumner, Coachways, Andover.