LABOUR Party activist Ann Wardle in her letter (Daily Echo, August 4) says that “The only way to fight cuts to our local services is to get a Labour government elected at the General Election next year, to restore the funding cuts so unfairly inflicted on our cities”.

Ann obviously wasn’t paying attention when Ed Milliband said, on numerous occasions, that even if Labour wins the next election, the cuts will continue.

And I think she must have gone to bed and dreamed that Labour would restore the cuts already made!

I stood as an Independent candidate in the city council elections earlier this year, on a clear record of resisting cuts in local public services, and was reelected in a previously Labour seat with an overwhelming majority described by the Daily Echo as a “landslide”. The Labour candidate came a poor third. There must be a lesson in there somewhere!

Perhaps, Ann, there is “another way to fight cuts to our local services”. Here in Southampton, Labour councillors are planning to close down residential care homes, respite units and day services for the disabled.

Instead, those same Labour councillors should find the courage to keep those crucial services going and call upon their Labour colleagues to do the same and join with them in mobilising public opinion to pressure the Government to restore funding for local services to the necessary level.

Independent Southampton City Councillor Keith Morrell.