Kelvyn Shantry, of Marlborough, Wilts, writes:

 Last week's edition reported the list of councillors hoping to get elected to TDC. It also reported separately the cost of their allowances for the last year which totalled £337,000.

Looking at the list and profiles of the candidates we seem to attract more retired candidates and very few young people or successful local businessmen for the important role of representing all residents' views at the council. By now the results will be in and Teignbridge will have a new council.

However, I believe there is a clear need to attract younger candidates and experienced business people to reflect the demographics of the council and bring energy, new thinking and professional expertise to help run the council.  Here are two ideas that could make a significant positive difference  if adopted for the next election.

 First, I believe that Teignbridge should be represented by only one councillor  for each of the 25 wards rather than the 46 councillors it currently takes to run the council. Why do we have only one MP for the whole of Teignbridge but two district councillors to represent College Ward, for example?

Having one councillor per ward allows clarity for  residents rather than not being certain who to contact. The additional responsibility and accountability should be rewarded by increasing the individual allowance to £7,000 pa in my opinion. Moving to this system would produce a saving of £50,000 in allowances alone.

Huge additional savings would be made by the significant reduction in TDC's administration and postal costs.

 Second, we need to make it much easier for young and working people to join the council by moving all council and committee meetings to the evenings. The current insistence on daytime meetings only makes it almost inevitable that many retired people are attracted to this important role in local democracy.

 I enjoyed my time as a councillor for College Ward and hopefully made a difference. I hope that these changes will be adopted in the future to give the residents of Teignbridge a council that reflects their  demographics and aspirations.