Cllr Harry Phibbs will have amazed and annoyed many local organisations with his suggested hundred ways of reducing council tax.

His suggestions may be tongue-in-cheek but there is a nagging fear that they are not and that he actually believes them to be practical.

No doubt those working with the elderly, the disabled and the young will have their own points to make.

His suggestion that the council stops 'funding refugee lobby groups' merits a response for us, however, because what he says is just plain wrong.

The fact is that the council does not fund socalled refugee lobbygroups.

Rather it provides modest amounts of funding to a number of refugee community organisations and the local Refugee Forum who work alongside the local authority dealing with a wide range of issues.

In many cases the council actually refers refugees to these community organisations because it doesn't employ people with the appropriate language skills.

A lot of the advice and guidance work carried out by refugee organisations enables services to be provided much more cost-effectively than if the council was to try and provide them itself.

Cllr Phibbs wants the council to rely more on the voluntary sector to provide services.

Well, Cllr Phibbs, refugee groups and the Refugee Forum are part of that voluntary sector doing just what you suggest.

They also assist the council in meeting some of the service targets for which it, the council, receives financial reward from the Government; a point that has clearly escaped you.

Phil Cooper Hammersmith and Fulham Refugee Forum

Bishop Creighton House Lillie Road