I AGREE with the letter from Cllr Steve Harcourt, Wroughton Parish Council chairman, June 18, “Council here to serve”.

Just one month after the Wroughton Parish Council election, councillors were writing confrontational letters to each other via the letters page of the Swindon Advertiser.

I felt so bemused by this correspondence that I immediately thought of that brilliant TV programme The Vicar of Dibley. Most of your readers will probably remember this programme which ran from 1994 to 2007. Dawn French played the vicar who attended parish council meetings. The councillors at these meetings consisted of eccentric halfwits ranging from the village bully to the village idiot.

In reality, councillors of any local authority are there to serve the public not to entertain them. Nor are they there to bring the council into disrepute.

Cllr Harcourt refers to the council’s positive achievements within the parish of Wroughton.

In addition to these achievements, I would point out the parish council employs a conscientious and hard working maintenance team. Members of this team keep village facilities clean, tidy and well maintained. The council also employs office staff, without who council business would not function.

Apart from employees, Wroughton has a number of hard working volunteers who give up their spare time and do an excellent job of improving the appearance and safety of the village.

Instead of fighting amongst themselves, councillors should concentrate on the issues that affect their electorate. They could start by looking at road and footpath safety, such as speeding, pavement parking, parking on yellow lines, cycling on footpaths, or they could try to resolve the problems of detritus, litter and weeds on footpaths and roads, or they could try to do something about poor footpath and road maintenance. The list goes on. There are many other issues which require attention.

If elected representatives are intent on airing their dirty laundry in public then, in my opinion, they should quit the parish council There were three candidates who were not elected during the last parish council election so it seems likely that replacements would be readily available.

K KANE Wharf Road Wroughton Swindon