If you don't like what councillors are doing in your name, why not do something about it? Stand for election as an independent councillor yourself in the local elections next May.

Independent politicians believe no party has a monopoly of good ideas and local governance depends on people of goodwill, who listen to advice, argue and debate, are capable of arriving at sensible decisions on their merits for the good of the community and are not driven by a higher party allegiance.

The critics of independent politics have pointed to its weakness being a lack of ideological coherence, with too great a focus on issues as they arise. Independents, however, without embarrassment or concern, make a virtue of their day-by-day decisions reflecting aspects of policies across the parties. Many independents would further point to their style of politics allowing many independent councils still to form and make the key decisions in a public and open way, without closed group meetings in advance.

More and more we are seeing people who are members of all political parties becoming independent, in order to throw off the shackles of the party whip and escape from decision-making behind closed doors.

-Coun Milner Whiteman Broseley, Shropshire