JUST as Pravda was the propaganda organ of the Soviet Communist Party, so our council s equivalent to it has rapidly become the propaganda vehicle for the local Labour Party. The issue dated March 6, in particular, provided, at taxpayers expense, gratuit

JUST as Pravda was the propaganda organ of the Soviet Communist Party, so our council's equivalent to it has rapidly become the propaganda vehicle for the local Labour Party.

The issue dated March 6, in particular, provided, at taxpayers' expense, gratuitous propaganda for the Labour Party in the run-up to the May elections.

It was distributed, at our expense, to every door in the Borough. Other parties and candidates have to finance their own literature, and do their own leg work, and their expenses are subject to statutory limits.

It is, as Cllr. Neil Connelly suggests (Postbag, May 3), "shameless electioneering."

It reported the freezing of council tax, as did the Post. But, unlike the Post, it omitted to report the other side of the story - �30 million (the council's figure)expenditure cuts, and 150 jobs on the line (though a BBC survey puts the figure at between 500 and 1,000.

The council denies this figure, as the Post reported. Readers can make up their own minds which to believe).

The council's propaganda sheet reported also the free access for over-60s to leisure centres, and the council's "determination" to do its best for pensioners. The Post reported this, too, but has also reported that the threat of closure still hangs over Galleon Hall day centre for the elderly.

On March 3 Postbag published an obviously well informed letter from Mary Parish asserting that this threat hangs over, also, all centres run by Age Concern under contract to the council for social care provision.

The latter fact is one which the council's publication "forgot" to publish.

Anthony Richards,

Wilmington Gardens

Barking