I WOULD like to offer a response to the published letter by Susan Marshall (‘Speak up!’, Postbag, June 7).

To whom and where do we speak? Our local MPs have only one loyalty - to the Conservative Party - and only heed their acolytes and ignore their electorate, what with Rebecca Pow’s values of everyone in Taunton Deane being overpaid.

What, no bleeding buses? I have been hearing this for over 50 years, ever since the overspill from London first came about in the 1960s.

Shock and awe of now living by her choice, the life we have been living for generations.

Investment in this country stops at the Home Counties. If the south east wants something, the nation pays for it. Would the shires need something, we are told ‘you are on your own’.

The infrastructure costs in London are £4,000 per head. Here, it is £230 per head, hence a very limited bus service.

While the south east squanders, the rest of the country is starved of funding.


READ MORE: LETTER: 'Speak up over changes in Taunton and Somerset'


The budgets for the shires have been cut so drastically that the bones are leeching.

Every level is underfunded and would there be a surplus, we all know where that will go.

As for the system needing a creative and practical agenda, I have one; a little less squandering on London will go a long way to enhancing the lives in the shires.

The surprise for Susan Marshall is how well managed the county shires are doing on Mites and Alms.

I assume that Susan Marshall is a pensioner who, after selling her home in Surrey for a good price, bought a property suitable for her needs at a fraction of the cost and hence pays a lot less in council tax but is demanding the same standards as over-privileged Surrey.

Would it be that you travel on the buses using your free bus pass? I suggest you pay for your own fare and give the bus operators a profit, and the buses might run more frequently.

I suggest those who have taken flight in their more senior years to the rustic shires from London and the Home Counties are draining our resources in their years of infirmity.

Would the shires be awarded the amount of money that Surrey saves for not having to pay for infirmary needs of those who have debunked to the shires, we in the shires might have a better standard of life.

GRAHAM GILLARD
Yeovil