IN the interest of balance I would like to respond to articles We Resign Say Grant Dispute Residents (Daily Echo, November 30) and Fighting on for Local Projects (December 4).

I am an agency representative on the Outer Shirley Regeneration Board (OSRB) but unfortunately could not make the meeting on November 29. Not all members of the OSRB resigned, some have continued to ensure vital funding for local projects is achieved.

They say Southampton City Council is taking decisions away from the community. The OSRB was formed to allocate SRB6 funding from the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) to regeneration projects in the community. We are now in the last four months of this programme and still have £500,000 to use. If it is not spent, it will be taken away.

The city council, which will be held responsible if this funding is lost, has been working on a set of proposals to make sure this doesn't happen. Not all board members see this as a negative thing; in fact, some of us support it.

It is important to note this situation has arisen because the programme's delivery plan allocated funding of £1.2m to the exit body, RISE.

RISE, for which the former OSRB members are directors, has not been able to submit a proposal which successfully achieved SEEDA approval. Therefore, at SEEDA's request, the council asked the overarching body, the Southampton Regeneration Executive, to help.

Only if the funding can't be used in Outer Shirley will it be used for regeneration projects elsewhere in the city. Surely this is better than the funding being lost altogether.

MIKE COLLIS, Millbrook, Southampton.