I HAD always thought that Councillor Paul Johnston was one of the more reasonable Conservative Councillors who sit opposite me in the Council chamber.

This is no longer true having read his diatribe against Edward Davey's expenses (sic) claims (June 19).

In the interests of brevity I shall address only his largest claim.

I count his staff as personal colleagues since I am employed part-time in a similar capacity by a neighbouring MP.

The £85,000 covers two caseworkers, an office manager (job-share) and a researcher. Divide this sum by four and deduct the on costs of employing staff and you are left with a very modest salary each. For the 20 hours per week for which I am paid, my salary amounts to about £9000 per year.

The cynic in me is tempted to presume that Mr Johnston is trying to create a smokescreen to prevent us seeing beyond our borough boundary.

Were we to do so we would find in an adjacent constituency a front bench Conservative MP who, were he to catch a commuter train from the adjacent platform to Mr Davey and spend 10 minutes longer on it, would arrive in the heart of his constituency.

However instead of this he chose the comfort of a second home at the expense to the tax payer of £17,000 per year (nearly twice my salary); a convenience he only chose to forego after the Daily Telegraph revealed all.

The allowances Mr Johnson is complaining about do not benefit Edward Davey personally - he uses them to employ staff and run an office for his constituents, which he does supremely better than any of his Conservative predecessors.

Oh and for Mr Johnson's benefit the "staff cover" he ridicules was, I believe, for two reasons.

First, to cover the maternity leave of a staff member, and second, to cover the sick leave of another staff member who became seriously ill.

Mr Johnson could have found this out for himself - as this information is provided on Mr Davey's website.

I suspect Cllr Johnson is more interested in smearing our MP, than in serious debate.

How low have the local Conservatives gone this time.

Cllr Dave Ryder-Mills Via e-mail

Surbiton