WIRRAL Globe reported in its edition of February 13 that the area forums are to be stopped.

One of the reasons you gave was that they cost £1,300 for each person attending.

That figure is unbelievable. Even if only one member of the public attended a forum, the meeting room hire cost and possibly overtime pay for some of the junior officials would have to be absurdly high to make such a total.

My wife and I have been frequent attendees since the idea was put into practice ten or more years ago.

Those to which we went were always well attended.

If there was one criticism it would be that too much time was taken up by council officers making presentations on subjects of little interest to the audience, leaving too little time for the open discussion which was usually the most productive part of the meeting.

Charles Picken, by email