Councillor Les Hamilton’s continued opposition to eminently sensible measures such as automatic metering (Letters, October 26) speaks volumes.

Through all the years of Labour and Conservative administrations on Brighton and Hove City Council no priority was given to the fact that many council sites across the city have no water or energy metering.

As a result, billing has been guesswork, and leaks only detected well afterwards.

As shown by a report which councillors recently considered, this has been costing the council tens of thousands of pounds a year.

Now, if Coun Hamilton and his Labour colleagues who voted against these measures choose to be blinkered about the environment and our status as a water-stressed region, then surely fast-rising energy and water bills should warrant their concern.

“If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it,” is an old aphorism which especially holds true for energy and water.

The Green administration is wasting no time in what should have been done a long time ago, so that our council can have more accurate bills and save money.

Labour is doing residents a great disservice by opposing proposals like this just because it considers them to be Green initiatives.

Jason Kitcat, leader of Brighton and Hove City Council