COUN Derek Smallwood tries very hard to convince readers that Labour's failure to produce any budget alternatives was some form of dignified protest (Letters, April 21).

This is nonsense. The reason Labour didn't submit a single amendment on anything in this year's budget, including the level of council tax, was that the group has no ideas and no positive proposals for York.

Every opposition of every political persuasion for the last 50 years at least has submitted a budget amendment (as the Greens did this year), without too much regard to the amount of time spent by officers researching it.

Labour has become a party only interested in carping from the sidelines. It is the role of an opposition to propose an alternative vision - it's a shame that Labour doesn't have one.

Coun Irene Waudby,

St Mark's Grove,

Rawcliffe,

York.

Updated: 09:03 Tuesday, April 25, 2006