I NOTICE that a report in the Echo states that another £12m worth of cuts are proposed for the fire service in Hampshire.

This is astonishing. I would suggest that public service has suffered enough cuts and it is all the more worrying when a man such as Royston Smith thinks that these cuts may even benefit the fire service and make Hampshire safer.

Royston Smith surely must know better and should be speaking to his Conservative friends in Government and fighting these cuts, not seeking to justify them and just hoping that a reorganisation including £12m cuts will improve the fire service.

The residents of Hampshire, the fire service and public service deserve better than this.

KEN PRIOR, Southampton.