IN the Malvern Gazette (September 5) you say that "13 of the Conservators are elected directly every four years". In fact only 11 Conservators will be directly elected by the precept payers. Another 18 will be appointed, mainly by the county councils and the district council. Therein lies the problem.

Firstly, the Malvern taxpayers, with only five elected Conservators, are grotesquely under-represented. Secondly, the appointed members are in the position of being able to dictate decisions which are not necessarily in the best interest of the precept payers.

Furthermore, they can do so happy in the knowledge that it will not cost their councils a penny.

We are supposed to live in a democratic society. What right do the chairman and vice-chairman of the Conservators (both appointees of Worcestershire County Council) have to tell me what precept I have to pay when they themselves pay nothing?

The Conservators are an archaic and undemocratic institution, which must either be reformed or abolished.

ALISTAIR MACMILLAN, Alexandra Lane, Malvern