RAY Turner (Letters, March 15) described Hampshire Council Council as spendthrift'.

Our council tax is in the lowest quartile of all counties in the land and our performance is at the top of the top quartile. It is the case therefore, that we do give value-for-money and what Mr Turner should be told is that we have saved £48m over the last three years, and this year will be on course to save a further £14m. These have been efficiency savings which we have then reinvested in our services.

Had the county council received half of the average grant from Government this coming year then our council tax could have been below the 3 per cent level.

However much Mr Turner may wish to hide from them, they are the facts and I can give him no better a quote than that from a mathematician, Michael Boon of Isitfair, who can hardly be regarded as supporting the county council. He said: "Hampshire is the second most frugal county council in the country". He did go on to say "people are lucky to have such a well-run council".

Recently we were absolutely transparent and honest, revealing that we spend £141,000 on bottled water. These are containers of water which are available in our many libraries, in register offices, in social care residential homes and in some schools, and as such are available not only to our staff, but also to children, teachers and members of the public.

When our refurbished headquarters is available to us, we will significantly reduce our expenditure on containerised water, in that, for the first time water will be piped into our open-plan offices and therefore will be available for staff to consume.

COUNCILLOR KEN THORNBER, leader, Hampshire County Council.