MADAM, The last few months have been both difficult and disappointing for our county.

Job losses have been higher than we are used to, the Legionnaires' outbreak sadly brought death and illness into our midst as well as causing a critical downturn in retail business for our city centre traders and then, to cap it all, we were informed that because Advantage West Midlands (AWM) had over committed their government funding they had to withdraw from promises they had made to us.

Several worthwhile and valid community projects had to be cancelled altogether and three of our most important projects for the future economic well being of our community - Rotherwas access road, the City of Living Crafts project and Roman Road improvements - were put into such jeopardy that even now I am not sure how we must proceed in order to re-establish their priority within the budgets of AWM, although urgent discussions are already in progress with that body.

They will no doubt tell us what hoops we must jump through in due course.

The fact of life is, of course, that Herefordshire does not figure very much in any of the grand plans of the various West Midlands/Birmingham controlled quangos and we must all of us pull together in unison to lobby by whatever means to re-establish our claims within their priorities.

On that subject, I am increasingly angered and frustrated by our MPs and wannabe MPs using our council as a political football in order to further their own political ambitions.

They know perfectly well that this council and its predecessor has done everything to the book in its dealings with AWM, the Rural Regeneration Board, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) and everyone else with whom we are obliged to liaise.

If they genuinely wanted to do something meaningful and constructive why have none of them been in touch with me, as cabinet member for economic development, to talk of ways in which we can all act as a Team Herefordshire?

It is quite obvious to me they are all seeing who can outdo the others in the political cesspit of party politics and using our council as their whipping boy as a means of getting the most sensational media headlines.

Recently, local party hacks have been in danger of following their masters down the same slippery slope of politics before community.

It is exactly this archetypical petty party political doctrinal reaction to matters of extreme concern to everyone in our local community, regardless of their persuasion, which caused me personally to turn my back on party politics in 2000 and stand as an Independent in 2003.

Charles Kennedy, in his new year message to his Lib Dem party faithful, called for an end to Yah Boo politics. It is a message I have been advocating for some considerable time. I do hope his local acolytes understand the benefits to a community such as ours and heed his plea because they certainly haven't been heeding mine.

The Queen, in her Christmas message, spoke of the advantages of working as a team. We in Herefordshire desperately need all to work together for our common good. We are a comparatively small community with little finance and no significant political clout on the regional or national stage. I urge everyone to stop whingeing and griping and feeling self-pity and to be positive, constructive and all pull together in the same direction.

Please stop scoring political points at each other's expense because in the end what you're scoring is own goals and Team Herefordshire doesn't need them.

GEORGE HYDE,

Hafod Road, Hereford.