Chutzpah is a word of Yiddish origin, which is defined in the dictionary as ‘shameless audacity’.

It would be hard to find a better way of describing the behaviour of councillors Bright, Clapper and Cohen in relation to the county council’s waste recycling site in Allum Lane.

“We have all come together without politics and worked together to ensure that the message of how important this recycling centre is got through to council officers”, claims Cllr Bright in the Borehamwood Times (‘Campaigners celebrate as recycling centre saved from closure’, September 12).

But it is the councillors from the controlling party, not officers, who slashed the budget for waste management and thus put the centre under threat.

Which party is that? The Tories. And to which party do these councillors who have suddenly “come together without politics” belong? Yes, you’ve guessed it – they’re Tories too.

Strange, isn’t it, how they suddenly forgot to mention their affiliation when they realised how unpopular the consequences of their own policy were making them, or to point out who was to blame for the proposal? There’s a term for people who say one thing while doing the opposite. It’s hypocrite. And we don’t need the dictionary to find examples of that, because three of them are grinning from ear to ear on your own front page.

John Cartledge

Haddon Close, Borehamwood