THE best answer to the request by the Local Government Boundary Commission for England in the Times (October 3) is that all borough councils should be abolished and authority should be returned to rural and urban district councils.

The purpose in creating the borough councils (itself a misnomer as each council is responsible for an area of many borough and rural parishes) was to reduce the cost of local representation in local public business. The purpose was not achieved anywhere in England; huge administration bodies were set up in very large, purpose-built premises. West Devon Borough Council is a clear example.

The second purpose was to abolish parochialism. It was achieved by replacing local government with remote government.

Borough councillors pontificate on matters in localities that they are utterly unfamiliar with, advised by heads of departments equally uninformed on nuances of local issues upon which they are required to advise. Any issue in Tavistock or Mary Tavy will be voted upon by a councillor of a North Devon constituency on the advice of an officer living in Totnes; neither party may have no business in the town or visits the town other than to attend to the work of the borough council in the council offices.

The creation of borough councils was achieved by the form of deception now called spin and should be rectified. The creation of Local Government Boundary Commission for England is a reminder of a more recent spin when the present Prime Minister insisted that it was his government's intention to give more authority to (so called) local government and less to Whitehall departments.

In answer to the point of the report in the Times, there should be no West Devon Borough Councillors.

G Kirkpatrick, Tavistock