LETTERS from two Trowbridge town councillors in your newspaper last week brought to mind the fate of the French royalist Bourbons.

It is said that they seemed to have learnt nothing and yet forgot nothing either. So it is with these councillors - one Conservative, the other Liberal Democrat - and their public stance on the old Trowbridge Town Hall.

These are the same councillors - along with 11 others - who voted to massively increase the Trowbridge council tax to pay for the refurbishment of this building. A refurbishment that was then to cost over three million pounds. Today the cost will be inevitably greater. They voted for this increase in face of the wrath of local people at two packed public meetings.

Since this hijacking of public money there has been next to no progress on the Town Hall. The money has not been spent. No Heritage Lottery Fund grant has been obtained - or even applied for. No business plan has been produced.

As I stated nearly a year ago, this refurbishment project is well beyond the capability of Trowbridge Town Council. It will never receive sufficient money in the way of grants to finance it. The only way the council will be able to raise the necessary funds will be to bleed the council tax payers dry by constantly increasing the council tax. This must not be allowed to happen.

The Town Hall is the responsibility of the County Council and it should be dealt with commercially.

The Town Council should start to get real and return the levy on the people of Trowbridge. It can do this by massively reducing the Trowbridge council tax for the coming financial year. I urge all council tax payers to contact the council with this objective firmly in mind. People should attend council meetings to ensure that this happens.

There will an election for a new Town Council in May 2007. The theme of this letter clearly outlines the stance that I will be adopting in that election - irrespective of party politics. From last week's correspondence we also have an idea of the position of at least two other current councillors. It is to be hoped that further candidates will start to remember and learn what really matters to the citizens of Trowbridge.

JEFF OSBORN, Trowbridge Town Councillor, Trowbridge