STEVE Galloway has got a nerve when he says that the Labour group's walk-out of council last week created a democratic deficit.

We walked out precisely to protest against such a deficit. Tabling a load of "questions" to executive members from their own side is not really a useful way to spend the time of full council. Taking it to the extent they did last week made the whole process a joke.

I am particularly annoyed that he stated that the residents of my ward, Heworth, were not represented - they most certainly were. It's just that, for a portion of the meeting, I chose not to listen to over an hour of self-congratulatory waffle on their part.

Coun Paul Blanchard,

Labour councillor for

Heworth Ward,

Heworth Mews, York.

Updated: 11:10 Thursday, November 18, 2004