The shameful treatment of Councillor Juliet McCaffery shows why we need to have independents on the council who can speak up for the voters who put them there and balance that with serving the city as a whole.

Coun McCaffery's removal from the committee deciding on secondary school admissions at the last minute is the sort of cynical tactic which gets politics a bad name and deters many good people from getting involved.

Coun McCaffery was a long-term member of that committee because of her knowledge of and interest in education. She had received hundreds of letters and emails on this complex - maybe intractable - issue.

To add insult to injury, Coun McCaffery's own Labour colleague commented that "Juliet saw a small proportion of her ward as more important than the whole city" (The Argus, February 3).

That is simply not true. I spoke to Juliet McCaffery about this issue and she is committed to finding a solution which is fair to all parts of the city. But she is against deciding school admissions by lottery.

The main political parties clearly see their councillors as a football manager sees his players, to be substituted at a moment's notice for tactical reasons.

James Simister independent, Withdean