I feel I must respond to Mr and Mrs Alison’s letter (Lack of Leadership holding area back, Have Your Say, October 5), because, while I have some sympathy with their perceptions, their conclusions couldn’t really be further from the truth.

Most people assume that because government hands out benefits, pensions, family allowances, etc to a strict formula regardless of where people live, that also applies to local authorities. However, it simply doesn’t happen with the rate support grant given to local authorities to help them deliver their statutory services.

Poole is one of the lowest funded unitary authorities in the country – if we were funded at the same rate per head of population as our neighbouring authority we would have an extra £18.5 million each year. If Poole received funding at the same rate as the average unitary authority then we would have more than £30 million more to spend.

Poole is a four-star authority delivering excellent services with a remarkable level of efficiency. We only wish we had a few of the missing millions to deliver some of the extra benefits, Christmas lights for example, that our residents see elsewhere.

Cllr ANN STRIBLEY, Borough of Poole