I must refute the comments regarding Brighton and Hove City Council's grants process (Name and address supplied, Letters, October 10), which were full of inaccuracies and misinformation - in particular, the assertion that scoring and appraisal information has not been made available.

This information is available to every individual applicant and councillors on request and formed part of the appraisal process considered by councillors, partner funding agencies and officers across the council.

The council has not breached any policies or procedures. All letters and emails received have been responded to directly, with the exception of a few letters from residents in Hangleton which provided no addresses.

The application form, at the request of the voluntary and community sector, also includes guidance notes within the form. These state more than half the form would provide basic information on the organisation, would not be required for subsequent applications and would be shared with other funding schemes to reduce bureaucracy.

The deadlines for making decisions detailed in the form was July 18. Decisions were actually made on September 12, less than nine weeks later, not the nine months quoted.

The scoring criteria were used and the criteria for prioritising bids have not changed. All this information was available to applicants in five workshops, 75 one-to-one surgeries with independent fundraising consultants and listed in the guidance notes attached to the application form and within other reports made available to applicants. Only two organisations requested this.

These criteria were agreed with the voluntary and community sector through a range of consultation procedures in early 2000.

In a demonstration of openness, the council funded two voluntary and community sector secondees to work alongside officers on the process. The full papers considered by Policy and Resources have been circulated to all applicants and letters sent recently stating that scores and appraisal details will also be circulated in the next few weeks.

I am confident this complex process, where difficult decisions had to be made, was achieved in a fair manner. I stand by the commitment of officers and councillors who ensured this happened.

-Coun Don Turner, Executive Councillor for Regeneration, Brighton and Hove City Council