AFTER reading Geoffrey McBride’s letter — (My aim is to work together), reading also other councillors’ comic remarks concerning another councillor’s hopeful projections, I wish you’d all behave and stop this childish bickering and start doing what is expected of you all!

Councillors elected and trusted by their locals should be able enough and strong enough to stand for what they promised us all and not continually stealing brownie points from each other!

You all should read, listen and digest what many write about via our local newspaper plus our editor’s comments often!

After spending four years cleaning our river of tonnes of rubbish via my boat ‘Anton Lady’ and [taking it in my] trailer to the dump [people] on an Austrian tourist coach parked near Bridge Street asked me the name of our river as they noticed no signs in Andover or Test Valley! In broken German I explained why and with a large crowd in attendance promised I would put it right!

Via my local as usual I asked for sponsors for my Test Way trek to pay for same, but soon after [the] Test Valley Borough Council chief executive wrote and told me he promised to put it right – and he did – he listened! But later I had to appear on TV to protest to TVBC not to carry out their millennium promise to spend some half-a-million pounds building a footpath along the Test Way from Andover to Romsey. They listened to my comments, which suggested using such money on needy services in Andover/Hampshire plus placing our war memorial back in the High Street. They acknowledged my former suggestion but unfortunately not the latter.

Ask me another anytime you wish Mr McBride, or fellow politicians, for this Andoverian keeps his promises over more years than any of you.

Just listen to us voters’ needs and not some crazy ideas you all seem to get as soon as you’re in that Office of Power the voter gave you.

Gerald Stoodley, Turin Court, Andover