YOUR regular correspondent 'Name & address supplied' is not the first person to question the validity of my election as a councillor and council leader (‘No one voted for our council leader’, January 12).

Prior to the close of nominations for the election in 2022 I had already been campaigning for re-election for many months.

I had delivered several thousand leaflets and spoken to hundreds of voters. I had another 5,000 leaflets sitting in my house waiting to be delivered. They eventually ended up in my blue bin.

Nobody was more disappointed than me when the election in Ward 1 was uncontested. The reason for it being uncontested was that only the Conservatives, Labour and the SNP stood candidates.

Neither Alba or the Liberal Democrats contested the ward and there was no independent as there had been at the previous election.

Presumably, Alba and the Liberal Democrats couldn’t find candidates, or they decided to prioritise other wards where they felt they had a better chance of winning a seat, such as Ward 5 in the case of Alba and Ward 6 in the case of the Liberal Democrats.

It may come as a surprise to your correspondent, but if there isn’t an election you can’t win votes. Every other election I stood in previously I was elected with votes.

My election as a councillor in 2022 – and that of my two fellow Ward 1 Councillors – is as legally valid as any other councillor who stood in a contested election.

The electorate for the position of Leader of the Council is comprised of the 22 elected members of the council. At the statutory meeting of the council in May 2022 I was elected unopposed as the leader by all 22 councillors.

Regarding the other issue of council tax your correspondent raises, I am by no means a wealthy man. I know however that I would be able to afford the extra £3.13 a week a seven per cent council tax rise would cost me, by cutting back on my discretionary spend. It is the price of a Bovril at the football stadium I attend on a regular basis.

As I have pointed out before, a quarter of households in Inverclyde are in receipt of council tax reduction so don’t benefit from a council tax freeze.

For the remaining households, a seven per cent rise would result in weekly increases of £1.28 (band A), £1.50 (band B), £1.71 (band C), £1.93 (band D), £2.53 (band E), £3.13 (band F), £3.77 (band G) and £4.72 (band H).

The alternative to a council tax rise is even more cuts to jobs and services. Is that what your correspondent wants?

Councillor Stephen McCabe

Leader of the Council

Elected Member

Inverclyde East (Ward 1)