Greg Mulholland MP makes an important point (‘MP says Council is not investing in town’, April 21 edition) about the sale of Otley's assets raising substantial sums of money which is not being used to invest in new assets for the town - such as a modern, sustainable Civic Centre for community use.

However, by choosing to use this as a short-term electioneering ploy he has received predictably defensive response from Councillor Richard Lewis on behalf of Labour. Cllr Lewis points out that sale of assets is happening in other parts of Leeds and that, given national imposed cuts by the Tory government (which we should be opposing together), it is not realistic to expect that Otley will keep all this money from the sale of publicly owned property.

Even if these public assets were created for the benefit of the town.

One option is to blame all Otley's problems on Leeds City Council as Jackie Brown, former Lib-Dem and now Independent candidate does in her election leaflet.

My position as Otley and Yeadon Green Party candidate is that all parties with Otley's interests at heart, at both city and town level, should be working together rather than trying to score points off each other.

We need to agree that a fair proportion of the proceeds from any current and future sales of assets should be earmarked to be used for the refurbishment of the Civic Centre and other facilities in the town.

Frankly at the moment, despite great efforts by the Give Otley its Town Hall campaign, we seem some way from having in place well advanced plans, ideally with some other funding secured, so that the Civic Centre looks a viable option.

Only this, I believe, will put sufficient pressure on Leeds to play their part.

The current adversarial approach in our local politics is not getting results for the people that matter, the people who live in Otley.

Mick Bradley,

Otley Town Councillor (Green),

Otley and Yeadon Leeds City Council candidate