No scaremongering

Let me assure your readers that no Sutton leisure centre will close whatever the outcome of the council's current discussions with Sutton Community Leisure (SCL), the organisation which runs our leisure centres.

I do need to give forewarning that Westcroft is to close for a while next year, but that's for major maintenance work and has nothing to do with this issue.

Coun Kennedy's secrecy claim is also nonsense. Your article quotes very partially from a letter from Sutton's chief executive to SCL and which was actually copied to Coun Kennedy.

This simply asked for a two-week delay in going public "until we have both had a chance to address the numerous issues that you SCL have raised".

The matter was always going to be debated in public at strategy committee and the report (and the chief executive's letter) made public then. This was to allow SCL to inform their staff of the facts.

The interpretation your report gives to the current level of council spending is also a red herring. Budgets for large organisations like Sutton Council often vary from original projections.

A similar level of overspend was forecast this time last year, but in fact at the end of the year we were well under budget.

Our directors are seeking to reduce the current overspend, and in any case the amount would be more than covered by our contingency provision.

This was made clear in the strategy report that Coun Kennedy and your paper received, but neither acknowledged that.

I recall Coun Kennedy's wild claim that the town centre market traders would have to close down as he said it was illegal for their licensing account to be in deficit. It wasn't illegal, and they haven't closed down.

Perhaps when he has had more experience on the council Coun Kennedy might learn to be more responsible in his public utterances.

But given the record of this Tory opposition, perhaps that's too much to ask.

COUN GRAHAM TOPE Sutton Central ward