If ignorance is bliss, your correspondent Geoff Cooper must be a very happy man. He admits in his latest letters that he has only a very limited grasp of how local government runs. Yet he regularly shares with us his opinions, so wide of the mark that they only go to reinforce his ignorance.

Mr Cooper criticises us for wanting to keep Bournemouth beautiful by making plans (strategies), and for wanting to keep Bournemouth’s economy thriving by encouraging business to our town and regenerating run-down areas.

He also sneers at our determination to build affordable homes as a step on the housing ladder and to continue to build council housing. Recently, we have seen an unprecedented increase in children in our schools, all of whose families need homes to live in.

At the other end of life, people are living longer and need care in their old age – hence our building specialist units with state of the art dementia care and nursing facilities.

This is why the need to “build, build, build” is certainly not “inexplicable” – it is a symptom of a popular and thriving town that so many want to live their lives here.

A lot of what we’re planning to do will be with together with other people – neighbouring councils, the voluntary sector, our universities, the NHS, commercial companies etc. and this is what is meant by “strategic partnerships”. This is not “gobbledygook”, it is the only way to achieve our high aims for the future of Bournemouth.

During this time of deep recession, Bournemouth Council is managing to buck the trend by saving millions of pounds, with minimal redundancies, all the while improving services to residents.

We’ve set aside large sums to put right the damage the weather has done to our roads and pavements; our recycling is the top in the country, and we have been successful in getting several huge government grants to improve our transport, seafront and waste services.

With the right “vision”, Bournemouth faces a bright future with confidence and certainty and I for one am happy to serve on this forward-looking, professional council whose only ambition is the betterment of our town.

Councillor Anne Filer, Bmth Borough Council