Last week the Government announced there would be a public inquiry before a National Park is established on the South Downs.

The Conservative-controlIed West Sussex County Council has opposed the creation of a National Park from the moment the announcement was made in 1999, despite overwhelming support from local residents.

To add insult to injury, it is proposing to spend £200,000 of taxpayers' money on external legal advice opposing the National Park at the public inquiry, despite 72 per cent of respondents to the Countryside Commission supporting the proposal.

Residents across the county are still coming to terms with the recordbreaking 18.5 per cent increase in council tax and are bewildered as to why the council is spending money opposing a proposal taxpayers support.

The council should stop playing politics with taxpayers' money.

The battle against the National Park has been lost and West Sussex County Council should drop its opposition and plans to spend £200,000 opposing the issue and begin to reflect the views of residents it claims to represent, rather than the self-interested views of an out-of-touch Cabinet at County Hall.

-Irene Richards, county councillor for East Worthing