THE managing director of Worcester City Council wasn’t pulling any punches when he penned a letter to this fine publication in apparent protest this week.

Duncan Sharkey clearly took umbrage to a piece which ran in the Worcester News earlier this month which described Nunnery Wood and St John’s sports centres as “struggling”.

On Monday, he told our letter page readers “nothing could be further from the truth”, saying they remain profitable and popular with the public at large.

Both sites are being hived off to Wychavon Leisure Trust, and he went on to declare that via reduced VAT and business rates, it would save £100,000 “without needing to make any other changes”.

But The Source wonders if he might be better off feeding all this positive mantra to his new Labour leadership, instead of our readers.

On Tuesday Labour Councillor Roger Berry, the city’s new leisure chief, said both sites are suffering “an element of decline”.

Furthermore, he said he could offer “no assurances” on maintaining opening hours, even suggesting there is “no point” in keeping some facilities going if they are not well used.

Worryingly, he then said another £60,000 needs to be saved in the deal, warning “user numbers will have to increase dramatically” to avoid such a depressing scenario becoming reality.

Just to hammer home the point, he also told us “it could well involve closing” the centres at particular times, or certain activities “ceasing”.

Can someone at the Guildhall introduce these two to each other?

* WITH iPads, iPhones and gadgets galore transforming the way we communicate, these are exciting times to be a politician.

The digital revolution is also leading to more of our elected representatives taking these posh devices along to council meetings - but is democracy any better for it?

Councillor Fran Oborski, a Liberal, was at County Hall this Tuesday for the regular meeting of a key committee which acts as a health watchdog, with her expensive iPad in tow as usual.

During the debates she was seen playing a card game on it, and even scouring a website dedicated to The Archers, keeping herself suitably entertained.

This isn’t the first time Coun Oborski has been caught with her attentions firmly fixed elsewhere.

In February last year the veteran politician was spotted playing Solitaire on her iPad2 while taking part in a debate of the health and overview scrutiny committee. Is she bored?