By Councillor Mark Allison, Merton Council cabinet member for finance (Labour, Lavender Fields)

I am disappointed with your assault on the reputation of staff at Merton Council.

 The Council is far from perfect – why would Councillors give up their spare time to help local residents improve it if it can’t be improved? But there is no justification for branding hard-working staff in this way.

 The Council makes mistakes. Everyone does. But for Conservative politicians to call it a “fraudster’s paradise” is disrespectful to the thousands of people who deliver our services, often on low wages, many with redundancy hanging over them because of Government cuts.

 As the community’s representative for finance, my task is to ensure the Council takes a very careful approach to spending tax payers’ money. That has helped us keep Council Tax low and cope with large reductions in government funding.

 It includes recovering money when repeat payments are made and yes, it even includes some staff using cards to buy essential products if that is the best way to pay for something.

 But given the corruption in newspapers, banks and so on, a sense of perspective would help. Merton is improving.

It is not a fraudster’s paradise, and for Tory politicians to suggest otherwise shows they live in a different world from the rest of us.

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