I WOULD like to respond to two recent letters in the Argus from obviously politically motivated individuals.

The first is the letter from one of the Labour councillors representing the area I live in, in which he tries to associate every police officer as being untrustworthy as a result of the tragedy in Hillsborough. To relate this incident to the forthcoming election and to try to use this line of attack against the vast majority of excellent police officers is disgraceful, and I would suggest if we take his approach then every politician should not be trusted due to the minority who fiddled their expenses. It is clear Cllr Dix has lowered the standards expected of someone who supposedly represents all the people who live in his area. Sarah Banwell seems to start by praising the two independent candidates, then implies that after the revelations of what she calls malpractice, all police officers must be thought of as corrupt, disgraceful in itself, but more so when done for political gain for her preferred candidate. We need freedom from political interference and to ensure true independence of the police. There are two independent candidates standing and, without disrespect to the other candidate, I believe Ian Johnston is the choice.

Mike Garland, Tredegar