I THANK Mrs Ward for her reply regarding the election count in Torfaen. Yes, I do appreciate everything she said about the delay, but she has avoided answering my question. Why didn’t they start counting when all the boxes of one ward were returned? Delays of queueing at the door is no excuse, neither is the decision to wait until all candidates were there. They all know the time, so Mrs Ward your decision was wrong and extremely time-consuming.

I suspect that Monmouthshire has the same practice of waiting so long. Imagine the ridiculous delay for a ward with only one polling station and one box to be counted, which gets to the counting station by 10.30pm but the result is not declared until about 3.15am.

I would indeed appreciate an honest answer - did you wait for all boxes to be verified before starting the counting? I suspect you did, so the delay was caused by you.

As for counts not being a race, perhaps you could tell Sunderland and Torquay and others that before the next general election. These councils always compete to be first and advertise the fact.

Jim Dyer, Stockton Road, Newport