ALONG with a large number of other interested parties, my wife and I attended a meeting of the community services committee to hear deliberations on cutting ADeC s funding by 40 per cent in the financial year 2008/2009. What we had not realised was that

ALONG with a large number of other interested parties, my wife and I attended a meeting of the community services committee to hear deliberations on cutting ADeC's funding by 40 per cent in the financial year 2008/2009.

What we had not realised was that this decision had already been made by the conservative majority and the whole meeting was just a case of 'going through the motions'.

We even had the ludicrous situation where a Conservative member, who was also an ADeC trustee, was voting in favour of the cut!

Who needs enemies when they have trustees like that?

ADeC, which does so much good in the community, costs each rate-payer in East Cambs about £2 per year. That is all we are talking about.

However, the one ray of sunshine in all of this is that the decision still has to be ratified by the full council.

This is where you come in.

Don't let this council make decisions on your behalf behind closed doors!

If you care about arts provision in East Cambs, write to the district council's chief executive and tell him that the ADeC grant must not be cut and that you are happy to pay an extra 80 pence a year on your Council Tax in order that it can continue. If enough people do this, the council will have to take notice. Send your letter, recorded delivery, just to be on the safe side, to:

John Hill, ECDC, The Grange, Nutholt Lane, Ely, CB7 4PL.

At the same meeting, another rather worrying statement was made regarding The Maltings.

The building was given to the people of Ely back in the 1970s. The then 'city fathers', in their wisdom, gave it to the district council. Was this legal?

The district council leases it out to a private company for around £90,000 a year, using the revenue generated to subsidise the rates of all the residents of the area.

This means the people of Ely have no meeting place and are subsidising the Council Tax of the residents in the rest of the East Cambs area.

It was also announced that next year, when the present lease expires, the building is to be closed for renovation.

TONY PEARSON

Ely Road

Prickwillow