The case for paying local authority councillors is overwhelming and fundamental to the health of local democracy.

Many councillors, of all parties, spend a great deal of their time on council business at the expense of their careers and should be rewarded for their efforts.

Brighton and Hove City Council has not been guilty of the excesses of local authorities where senior councillors have been paid up to £50,000 for their official business.

The average payments made to our councillors, some of whom work full-time on the city's affairs, can hardly be described as a living wage, let alone excessive, at a time of soaring housing and living costs.

I am standing for the Green Party in the Hanover ward next year and I am certainly not doing it for the money.

Nevertheless, payments do make it possible for people on low and modest incomes to stand for the council.

Retired citizens apart, only the wealthy and those supported by trade unions can afford to stand in the absence of payments. We do not want to go back to that system.

I urge all those who have taken time to write letters on the subject of local democracy to vote in next year's local elections. If you don't bother to make your voice heard on election day, you can hardly complain afterwards.

-Bill Randall, Carlyle Street, Brighton