Voice Of The Argus owes Councillor John Livermore an apology for describing him as "unusually petulant", "silly" and "causing embarrassment" in declining to serve as mayor following the Lib-Dem victory in Worthing.

At both county and borough levels, John is an outstandingly hard-working, committed, intelligent and pragmatic councillor, quite without a trace of the self-conceit one so often finds in our elected representatives.

Surely this dedicated public servant may be spared the indignity of acting as the puppet of an opportunistic Lib Dem council majority?

-Oliver Simpson, OliverDPSimpson@cs.com