AFTER promising not to waste any more time replying to me, I see Cllr Mark Hood's resolve is already crumbling.

His latest press release which was published in last week's paper contained a gratuitous sideswipe at me. He does not name me but everyone knows that "local Conservatives complaining that councillors need to do more to establish foodbanks" refers to me since I have publicly criticised Cllr Hood for the lack of a food bank in Lochgelly.

His reply to my criticism was "In my opinion we need to first get rid of the Tories and then remove the need for foodbanks".

Cllr Hood had already attacked my comments on food banks on Facebook, another medium apparently exempt from his resolution not to respond to me. In fact Cllr Hood repeatedly deleted comments and blocked me on Facebook when I tried to explain my position, so I hope you will grant me the space to do so here.

I am amazed that Cllr Hood thinks getting rid of Conservatives at Westminster is more important than establishing local foodbanks. Even more unbelievably, he thinks helping some of the neediest families and children in his ward can wait until he has got rid of the Tories. Not that he tells us how he's going to do that given how beleaguered Labour is - has he seen the polls? - or indeed how long it's going to take.

There couldn't be a clearer illustration of how he prefers political posturing to practical action. Faith in his Party trumps the interests of the people he's elected to represent.

As ever, Cllr Hood resorts to tribal jeering to avoid the immediate issue which is why he, for 10 years the representative of the party which claims to stand for the poorest and most vulnerable, has not made sure Lochgelly has a food bank. People more cynical than me put down his hostility to seeing a foodbank in Lochgelly as embarrassment that after decades in power Fife Labour has done so little to lift the area out of multiple deprivation.

We can have macro-arguments about welfare reform, which incidentally the Labour Party did not oppose when the Bill was introduced in 2015, which many across the political spectrum (including the Left) agree is overdue and whose implementation I with very many others nevertheless think has incurred terrible and unjust casualties. But my beef here is local politics and Cllr Hood's record as a local politician.

Whether they have to walk a hundred yards to a local foodbank or catch a bus they cannot afford is what counts for the people Cllr Hood represents.

Seen from this perspective, spending millions on an Olympic cycle track or a rock-climbing facility, neither of which will be free for locals to use or have hugely reduced prices for those on low incomes is akin to Marie Antoinette telling the rabble to eat cake.

LINDA HOLT,

Dreel House,

Pittenweem.