Cllr Peter Thompson appears to be more confused then he accuses us of being (Letters, October 16).

My quote did not link freezing the council tax with the voluntary redundancies made as a result of the Performance Improvement Programme at the council.

My concerns have always been the impact of such a large loss of experienced and knowledge-able staff on service delivery and the effect on service users.

I have consistently raised the issue of why a risk assessment of the Improvement Programme on service delivery was not done.

The regrettable absence of such an assessment was acknowledged by a member of the Tory administration at a recent Scrutiny Committee meeting.

I have also supported the freezing of the level of council tax, and my approach is constistent with that of Cllr Sharma.

So no, Cllr Thompson, there is no confusion among the leadership of Hounslow Labour Group. I wonder if we can say the same about the Tory administration.

CLLR RUTH CADBURY Deputy Leader of the Labour Group.