DEAR EDITOR - I feel your readers should know the line of questioning I would have taken if I had not been denied my statutory right, as a Bromsgrove District councillor, to scrutinise decisions concerning the sale of land at Aston Road, Bromsgrove, at the Policy and Strategy Scrutiny Committee meeting on July 10.

1. Why did the council not follow its normal procedure of 'open tendering'?

2. What is 'informal tendering'?

3. Why did the council ask a local estate agent to carry out an 'informal tendering ' exercise at a cost to the council, when 'open

tendering' would normally be carried out internally by the council?

4. Did the council take on board the strategic location of the land with its links to Bromsgrove station and any future development of the old UEF (Garringtons) site?

5. Was the council confident that it had received the best offer for the land, being mindful that just under two years ago it withdrew the sale of the land because it was unsure of the true value of the land?

I leave readers to decide whether the council tax payer was short-changed or not over the sale of the land in the light of the council refusing local elected councillors their right under law to ask such important questions in relation to how decisions are made.

Cllr Peter McDonald,

(Lab - Uffdown and Waseley).