THANK you to all 877 people that voted for me in the recent Durham County elections for Spennymoor ward and for voting me back into Spennymoor Town Council with 602 votes.

Comments by the successful county council candidate, Ian Geldard, accusing former Lib Dem councillors of cowardice are inappropriate.

He obviously did not read The Northern Echo’s report in 2012 when we moved away from the Lib Dems because we could not support their policies.

It takes guts and a degree of intelligence to form a group to focus on significant local issues caused by years of mainstream party mismanagement, and our candidates can be proud of their campaign and local support, reflected in the numbers that voted for us.

Many good local councillors have lost their seats.

Coun Geldard with his lack of experience and involvement has relied on the huge Labour Party machinery and finance, external support and party-produced county-wide leaflets lacking in policy and substance to gain a profile – some of his leaflets littered with spelling mistakes and misleading comments.

He says Spennymoor Town Council can progress now that they have removed our members.

This has always been a Labourcontrolled council.

We came up with the idea of the art gallery, suggested costcutting measures, recommended solar panels and defibrillators for the town hall and discussed a skate park long before it occurred to Labour councillors.

Our actions speak louder than his words.

Liz Maddison, Spennymoor Independents.