WE citizens and taxpayers are entitled to expect the highest standards of integrity and honesty from spokesmen for the public bodies who serve us. Or perhaps in these days of spin I am just too nave, too much the innocent.

Tony Webster, speaking for the North Yorkshire County Council about Kirkbymoorside Allotment Association, falls well short of my expectation (Evening Press, May 5).

The fact is the county council stopped discussing a new lease with us when they failed to respond to our letters of December 23, January 1 and March 9. Never mind an invitation to sit around a table to discuss the issues we didn't even get an acknowledgement card.

He does, however, tell the truth when he says the ball is in our court. I believe that is because media interest has miraculously produced a response, albeit from the county council's agent.

I only write this because Mr Webster's misleading statement may be read and believed by influential people with a role to play in resolving our anomalous situation and that would be unfair.

Neville Kirby,

Chairman of Kirkbymoorside Allotment Association,

West End, Kirkbymoorside.

Updated: 11:08 Thursday, May 20, 2004