I write in response to the letter from the Leader of Bromsgrove District Council, Councillor Margaret Sherrey, entitled “Cash is for benefit of all” in the March 18 edition.

It is totally untrue for Councillor Sherrey to state that the £87,000 of New Homes Bonus money to be passed to communities in the next year was agreed in committee by the Leaders of the Labour group and the Independent Alliance.

The agendas and minutes of recent Cabinet and Full Council meetings prove that the cross-party committee could not agree a specific amount and it was ultimately only Conservative Councillors that agreed the actual amount.

In fact, at the recent Full Council meeting, the Independent Alliance proposed some £406,000 of NHB be passed to communities, and the Labour Group proposed some £340,000.

Conservative Councillors voted against both of those higher amounts, instead en masse voting for the paltry £87,000.

For the Council Leader to attempt to mislead the people of Bromsgrove into believing opposition group leaders agreed the derisory amount included in the budget is totally unacceptable, and I hereby call on her to publicly apologise and correct her false statement.

Peter Rowbottom Hagley