ALTHOUGH it was good to see my old friend and former colleague John Ford (Your Letters, May 10) come into the public fray regarding the current problems on the local government scene in Malvern I fear that some of his assumptions are mistaken.

I took part in the recent by-election in Trinity ward and the issue of the town council and its former clerk was raised only once on the doorstep and I knocked on over 400 of them during the campaign. I can assure John that if it were a perceived embarrassment to Mike Angell then the Tories would have wasted no time in highlighting it.

The fact is they knew the whole issue barely registers with the average voter. Mike Angell also polled 140 more votes than Christine Wild at the previous election, hardly the drubbing he implies.

This whole issue goes back to before the last district council election when various members of the Lib Dem group fell out and created such animosity that several leading members including both John Ford and myself grew so tired of the poisonous atmosphere that we walked away and did not stand again.

It is by and large these very same people that are indulging themselves in the ongoing squabble on the town council. The district auditor in his report effectively said "a plague on both houses".

Before those individuals concerned make both the town and district council the last bastion of the embittered can they please make their apologies to the public and get on with the job in hand.

CLIVE SMITH, Greenfields Road, Malvern Link.