I WOULD like to thank everyone who came along to the cabinet surgeries held in West Wiltshire's five towns over the last month.

We were heartened by the positive response that we received from local residents and we very much enjoyed the experience. As well as meeting with people in their home towns, we also valued their views, good and bad. Individual feedback to specific queries raised at the five surgeries is now being prepared and will be sent out soon. It is my hope that future cabinets will repeat this experience.

The surgeries were promoted with leaflets, posters, press releases, information on our website and via ward members: however it would appear that some people were not aware of the arrangements and therefore missed meeting us. We will look at ways of improving our publicity for any future events, based on lessons learned this time.

Your postbag (October 13) included a letter from Hillside Action Group in Bradford on Avon, whose members missed our surgery there, which suggested that they had received no contact from me about their campaign on Conigre Hill.

I would like to clarify that I have written to the group and also accepted an invitation to meet them, should they still wish to do so. We did speak with someone at the Warminster surgery who was connected with the Hillside group and I hope that he has been able to report back.

While the cabinet surgeries were a new way for people to talk to us, I would remind residents that all district councillors are there to help them and we can be contacted by phone, e-mail or by letter. Our details can be found on our website at www.westwiltshire.gov.uk - or call the council's member support section on (01225) 770322.

CLLR SARAH CONTENT (LIB DEM) Leader of the Council, WWDC