SIR - So Bradford Council is going to invest £1.4 million on the City of Culture bid whilst cutting the budget to its existing "centuries old cultural heritage" (Susan Hinchcliffe) by 65per cent over the next two years.

And all this without properly consulting the communities, not to mention staff affected by these cuts.

Our library, museum and art collections, and in one case at least, building (Keighley Library), are not theirs to do with as they please. They have a legal requirement to consult us and are required by law to carry out a proper 'equalities impact assessment'.

Perhaps Susan Hinchcliffe and her councillors hoped this fanciful bid would act as a smokescreen behind which they could carry out cultural vandalism.

Ever since I came to work in Bradford Libraries around 18 years ago, I've seen the council come up with pie-in-the-sky schemes.

In my time there I felt that we, the frontline staff, our 'team leaders' and Union reps were never treated with enough respect and certainly not listened to!

Now I see that this lack of respect extends to the people these councillors are supposed to represent. Democracy is slowly being chipped away. Let's not let it continue to happen in Bradford.

Helen Broadhead, Milford Place, Bradford