BEFORE the mid-1970s, that is before councils started playing party politics with the rates or nowadays with the council tax, it did not matter too much whether a council was Labour or Conservative.

They had more duties, too, because fire and police were not separate departments (as now) and a council had to be responsible for water and sewerage.

The biggest difference, though, was that councillors knew that their main task was what might be called local housekeeping and knew that the local taxes were there solely to be used for those jobs.

If it is true that this council has stashed away more than £84m, that it is using such funds not to keep open a badly-needed school for severely disabled children or to prevent reducing library hours to a ridiculous minimum or to fulfil any of the other duties it is expected to perform for its local residents...

then it has lost the plot.

Apparently it is also lending money to other local authorities using revenue obtained either locally or via national taxes, money that could perhaps help to fill local potholes instead of the coffers of people who have nothing to do with Wirral.

It sounds as if it were high time for this council, which seems to have no idea of its correct priorities or of its proper municipal duties, to be taken over by a Government authority.

Mrs Evelyn Campbell-Smith by email.