How can the Green council of Brighton and Hove even consider holding a referendum to put up council tax when it spends money like water (The Argus, January 17)?

The Greens have been in dispute with refuse collectors for a year and still not resolved the problem. This must have cost a considerable amount of money.

Departments have been allowed to over-run their budgets with impunity (HR department £110,000, traveller budget £270,000) and now we have the council proposing to take out a loan of £36 million to help build the i360. The council is providing virtually all the finance.

There is no private investor willing to finance this project probably for good reason. If the company proposing to build the project goes bankrupt, the council will lose its money. How can the council gamble with taxpayers’ money like this?

The council has been working on the Arches around the West Pier for the best part of a year – perhaps it can say how much this work has cost.

We now have the leader of the council saying all councillors will be subject to diversity training. Who is paying for this, what benefit is it to taxpayers and what will it achieve?

We have consultants brought in at a cost of about £1,200 a week to pay for coaching executive staff earning between £50,000 and £150,000 a year.

The proposal to hold a referendum to consider putting up council tax will cost £230,000 and what will it achieve? If the result, as is likely, is a no vote, the Green council and executives who advise will have wasted another considerable amount of money.

Clearly the council is falling down on financial management and the chief executive should be replaced with someone who is going to install some financial control over the executive.

It appears the Green councillors have little idea of financial management when faced with cutting expenditure.

B Bayliss, Mornington Crescent, Hove