I AM writing in response to what must be one of the most ill-informed letters to appear in the Daily Echo letters page in recent years. The letter published in Thursday's paper in the name of Jeremy Moulton demonstrates the utter idleness of the current Conservative opposition on the council. If he or any of his colleagues been bothered to get himself briefed on our energy company proposal, he would have found out the truth.

Firstly, not one penny of Southampton Council taxpayers' money is at risk. We, along with 13 other southern councils, including a number of Conservative ones, are partnering with Robin Hood energy to offer a local not-for-profit alternative to the big five energy companies.

Every penny of any surplus we make will be invested in local services in the city. When Robin Hood launched in the East Midlands the impact was to force the big five to drop prices for all customers.

We believe that we can persuade people who, up to now, have been reluctant to switch to take the plunge and save themselves hundreds of pounds a year.

Secondly in his first paragraph he says that the council should be focusing on fixing the roads – next year, as has been reported in the Echo, your Labour council at the budget meeting in February added an additional eight million pounds to the roads budget.

This will mean that an additional hundred city roads will get a full resurface next year. Every Conservative councillor voted against this proposal, as well as our plans to invest in extra street cleaning, enforcement work and our city parks.

This was the sixth year in a row that the lazy Southampton Conservatives failed to put forward a costed budget.

As a footnote I would point out that in a recent by-election in Nottingham Labour gained a seat from the Conservatives, reducing their representation on the council to just two – so much for anger at the way that city is being run by Labour.

Cllr Simon Letts

Leader, Southampton City Council