WHILE I enjoy Pete Magill’s articles in the Warrington Guardian and they are one of the first things I read, as the Conservative candidate in the Bruche ward by-election and a committee member of Longbarn Resident’s Association I am offended by his statement ‘you can’t help but wonder if Longbarn couldn’t have waited six months for its next representative’.

Less than one third of the geographical area of Longbarn is currently within the Bruche ward and no Longbarn resident called for the election to happen.

Warrington North Conservative Association was content to allow the Labour councillors to co-opt somebody onto the parish council and wait until May to contest the seats.

But UKIP chose to spend £5,500 of the limited parish’s financial resources on the election by calling for it to occur, when unlike both the Conservative and the Labour parties, UKIP could not even find a candidate that lived in either the ward or the parish. Having caused the parish to spend that money, they were only able to muster 79 votes.

Perhaps the Warrington electorate should note that UKIP has no hesitation in wasting or throwing away public money, even that of the limited resources of a parish council when it comes to the May elections and that it does not know how to act responsibly for the benefit of the electorate.

HOWARD KLEIN Padgate