Giving voters back the whip hand (Have Your Say, October 27) is a splendid sentiment and your correspondent Gordon Cann clearly supports this.

But he concludes that most problems relating to council officers “pulling the wool over councillors’ eyes and running the council as they wish” is not due to any conspiracy but to political party whipping and the operation of the party machines. There is a great deal in this argument but I have stood for election myself and can tell Mr Cann that the voters are really not interested in voting for non-party candidates. At the last Bournemouth council elections, only three independents were elected out of 54. Therefore, to the extent that the workings of the party machines restrict local democracy, it is unfortunately the case that the voters support that system. Cllr Borthwick (Have Your Say, October 24) was, I believe, making a separate point which is that councillors are often not informed of action being taken by officers. If councillors are not provided with information then their power is seriously curtailed and the democratic process is frustrated, notwithstanding the fact that the voters prefer to vote for party candidates. Tony Williams, Warnford Road, Bournemouth