Having read Councillor Stephen Giles-Medhurst’s (Lib Dem) utterances last week (‘Help us to save your under-threat services’, Your Views, July 25), you might be forgiven for thinking that he and his group were the only opposition on the county council.

Unfortunately for him, but fortunate for the residents of the county, that, of course, is not true. In fact, the greatly enlarged Labour group is making its mark in all areas where the Tories need to be held to account.

The Labour group at county led the way at the recent council meeting, lodging a motion to suspend the consultation (the Tories voted it down) on the bus proposals because they are unfair and not transparent, as well as being loaded in the way the questions have been framed.

That together with the way the information was presented at the cabinet panel the week before the council meeting, was somewhat misleading, and then changed drastically three days after the council meeting. It hardly inspires confidence.

There is no doubt that if these cuts happen many people will be left stranded, communities across districts will be cut off from each other and it will be very difficult to travel across the county at times when most people would expect a bus service.

The crux of the matter is do we want to supply a public bus service for people or not? Since the deregulation of bus services in the 1980s, the emphasis has been on how much can operators make in profit from the public purse. This latest proposal from the Tories at county is yet another attack on the poor, the needy and the elderly. This is just another step too far.

For that reason the Labour group has launched its own petition that is more meaningful and stronger in its intent. For the good of those who rely on us to protect their needs, I urge you to sign our petition now so that we can send a strong message to those who want to cut these much needed services. You will find the petition on https://consult.hertsdirect.org/ petitions?petitions_id=207951

Cllr Leon Reefe

Lab/Borehamwood North, Hertfordshire County Council