ABOUT 50 years ago, I served for several years as a member of Westhoughton Council, as did a few others who are still with us.

As chairman of two committees, I had quite a few responsibilities, and needed to spend quite a bit of time doing what was required to act as a voluntary servant of the voting public.

Meetings were quite frequent and often lasted quite a time, and there were necessary duties to be served during the day, quite frequently.

Losing my office meant my jobs were overtaken by other elected volunteers after six years' service. Sadly for them, by today's standards, like me, they never drew expenses, which were bigger than an OAP weekly rate as is common today.

In fact, we drew nothing unless there was, say, a meeting many miles away, in which case we got bus/train fare.

I recommend that in future everyone changes their vote every year so that all the applicants get a fair share of our money - 744,948.

Fred Sharples, Lee Bank, Westhoughton