Costly Assembly; yourLETTERS.

WITH regard to the slashed council budgets, constituents should have been prepared for this sort of news.

We've been repeatedly warned by every level of government to expect large cuts over the coming years. This, of course, is thanks to the Wicked Witch of Recession - rather than an inept government. As a former councillor I am well aware that we should have expected the Assembly to dump a large proportion of the burden onto the councils when doling out this year's meagre allowances.

However they've wantonly spent millions on their latest PR stunt, to "take the Government to the people".

This basically involves offering tidy incentives to Cardiff based Assembly workers to move to brand new hi-tech offices in Merthyr and Aberystwyth (the latter alone cost the small sum of pounds 20 million just for the building). So imagine now that we were to get rid of the Assembly altogether? By cutting out a whole layer of unnecessary bureaucracy.

How much might we be able to save? Well for starters we could claw back at least pounds 14m a year simply by getting rid of all the Assembly Members and their Blackberry wielding staff.

This money could then be directed back towards the people of Wales, and the 40-odd Welsh MPs who suddenly found themselves with rather a lot less to do could get back to the business of giving us a voice in Westminster."

John Bufton,MEP Rhayader