How right you are to draw attention to the limited effectiveness of central Government requirements regarding local council spending (Argus, February 1).

They does not mitigate against the contribution unnecessary spending by local authorities has on our council tax increases.

The epidemic of pavement buildouts at road junctions and bus stops has continued unabated for years. I doubt there has been any real cost/benefit analysis for these schemes.

We now have a six-month project to reconfigure the Palmeira Square traffic system.

While this may be "nice to do" given a bottomless pit of funds, it is a total waste of our money at a time when the council should be seeking to save every penny.

The fact is, nobody would be significantly worse off if Palmeira Square were left exactly as it is for the next few years.

This, I suspect, would be the case for almost all the minor road works schemes which have already taken place or are being planned for the future.

As you state, council tax is out of control at a time when many incomes are pegged to RPI or less.

Some of this is due, in my view, to a lack of real commercial decision making.

The solution is not to undertake these schemes, save the capital costs and some of the people costs which go with them.

How much has been spent on this sort of work over the past five years? I think we should be told.

-Derek Hillier, Hove