IN Your Letters (Malvern Gazette & Ledbury Reporter, May 10) you published three letters attacking Malvern Town Council and some of its actions.

John Ford states that a cabal of councillors granted the previous town clerk an incredibly generous retirement package without knowing the cost because they knew "the game would be up" when the MTAG councillors were elected. What game is he referring to?

The only game being played is that being played by MTAG which so far has cost the taxpayers of Malvern approximately £250,000.

It was MTAG that pressurised the former clerk into requesting early retirement because it had made his position untenable. The cost of this early retirement was £194,866, which was in line with the policy of the Worcestershire County Council Superannuation Fund.

The remaining amount is made up of district auditors fees to investigate complaints made by MTAG against the council £9,500; costs of the parish referendum instigated by MTAG £4,092; cost of two town clerk recruitment exercises £6,635; by-elections resulting from the MTAG campaign and referendum £6,050; extra expenses accrued from having to employ an acting-town clerk £16,759; hire of the Forum for extraordinary parish meeting £525; KPMG report commissioned by town council in answer to MTAG's accusations of mismanagement £11,475; council's solicitors fees for attendance at town meetings and other related expenses £2,501; former town clerk's solicitor fees £1,660; ALLC's personnel advisors fees and accommodation costs £4,494. All these charges came about as a direct result of MTAG activities.

The council was forced to take on a temporary clerk at more expense because of MTAG.

Following the advertising of the post of town clerk, MTAG sent letters to all the candidates stating that it had not been invited to take part in the selection panel and that when it took over the council, as it inevitably would, the post holder would be required to down size his staff and re-evaluate his own position. The truth is that no members of MTAG were councillors at the time the post was advertised or when the selection panel was appointed.

Subsequently to this and before the interviews were held members of MTAG were elected to the council but at no time did they request that any of their members be given a place on the appointments panel.

The successful candidate turned the position down because of the letter he was sent by MTAG. Had he felt able to accept the post, we would not have had to appoint a temporary clerk.

Adrian Ward claims the MTAG councillors have proved the council can perform more than adequately with half the staff it wanted and has contributed to a substantial reduction in the budget.

I would also point out that this year's budget was not a direct result of MTAG's intervention but a lot of hard work by a lot of councillors of which MTAG was in the minority.

The fact the council is managing to perform more than adequately with its low numbers of staff is more down to the fact the staff we have are loyal and very hardworking and are putting in a great deal of effort to keep the council going in spite of the activities of MTAG, a fact for which I would personally like to say thank you to all members of the council staff.

I urge members of the public to attend council meetings and call for the resignations of the MTAG group of councillors whose activities have already cost the tax payers of Malvern around £250,000 and their continued presence will only add to this amount.

Patrick Mewton, town councillor, Elgar Avenue, Malvern.