I FEEL that I must respond to the online comment from funkyferret repeated in the paper (‘Have your say’, July 14) regarding councillors’ allowances.

As has been reported extensively, Bournemouth councillors on the cabinet took a cut of five per cent in their approved allowances in April 2011 and all councillor allowances have remained frozen since then. In fact the basic allowance for councillors in Bournemouth has been frozen for over five years, since April 2009.

These were local decisions taken freely by Bournemouth councillors, despite the independent body responsible recommending increases in each year, both at the time and ever since then.

I hope your correspondent will be reassured that Bournemouth councillors have been putting the best interests of the council tax payer first and leading by example when it comes to the benefits they receive.

CLLR JOHN BEESLEY, leader, Bournemouth Borough Council