All too often I hear that people think it does not matter what party or who they vote for in parish or district elections because they think we all do the same.

I think it would be great if people were aware of the roles of councillors and how much a poorly performing council can cost them, inconvenience them and spoil an area because it is the council that makes the decisions and the officers who advise them, where required, but act upon the council’s decisions.

We do not do the job for the money as at parish council we receive nothing and district we get £5,000 per year plus a little to run our own computers and supply ink and paper, hardly a fortune as we often work three days a week-plus on council activities, plus we then deal with local problems brought to us by our ward residents.

I live in my ward and publish my name, address, email and phone number to be easily accessible to people at most times when they need to contact me. I often get stopped going around the shops and this is a good thing I think.

At New Forest District Council we have weekly bin collections and have a good rate of recycling but do not, as a lot of councils require, have lines of different coloured wheel bins.

By recycling, avoiding landfill and its taxes, we minimise the costs of waste and sell a lot of the material we recycle to recover costs.

At Fawley Parish Council we have used grant funding and developers’ contributions to extend and refurbish our children’s play areas and keep open one planned for housing.

I am not trying to say I do all of this as one person could not on his or her own. I work with the rest of your local councillors trying to give the best services at the least cost and enjoy doing it. As a retired person with management experience I have the time and experience to try to get things done for the residents that they want.

I hope that people will compare local areas and the councils and councillors’ performance to realise that some are a lot better than others. Therefore it can be a good idea if they vote for the council and councillor that will do the best job for them.

Cllr Alan Glass, Holbury and North Blackfield ward New Forest District Council and Fawley Parish Council deputy chairman