YOUR piece attacking Conservative proposals to give pensioners a 10 per cent rebate off their council tax (Echo report November 15) was very unbalanced. To accuse a political party of conning pensioners for votes' is strong meat indeed- especially as it doesn't happen to be true!

I would have thought that for the article to be fair you would have also felt obligated to point out that the reason most of those pensioners who are not eligible to get the discount is that they are having their council tax paid for by benefit anyway! While everyone is entitled to their view on the Tory budget and indeed its political priorities, I feel that the use of emotive language and misinformation is hardly productive.

On a different note, the article on the selling and redeveloping of Southampton College land seemed a fair and accurate summary. Readers may not know that an alliance of Labour and Liberal Councillors voted through these proposals; personally I and my fellow Conservatives voted against the destruction of this educational resource.

Cllr MATTHEW DEAN