In his recent letter Councillor Daniel Fitzhenry obviously believes the recently rejected Trump mantra, that if you peddle fiction long enough, some people eventually believe it to be correct.

Firstly he claims that “90% of exports from Southampton go outside of the EU”, when the actual facts are that Southampton based businesses export 43% of all their exports worth 133 million pounds direct to the EU.

Nationally the same 43% of all exports worth 294 billion pounds is also exported direct to EU countries, with a very high percentage of this passing through Southampton docks.

However you try to sell Brexit, voluntarily removing ourselves from being one of the most powerful and influential members of the world’s largest trading block, to trying to cobble together second rate trade deals with anyone prepared to help, is simply damage limitation.

He then claims that the present council waste public money on new cycle lanes, failing to tell us that the cycle lanes in question were funded by his own Conservative government as part of a 2 Billion pound government grant to local authorities to, as transport minister Grant Shapps stated, “create pop up cycle lanes as quickly as possible” and to “give cyclists and pedestrians priority over motor vehicle from now on”.

Despite this misinformation, promoted by Councillor Fitzhenry he then claims that the city needs a Conservative controlled council, well as a Southampton resident and business owner for over 60 years I would like to explain to him that what I think most people want is an honest council not one sold on deception.

T.K.Tew

Netley Common