IN attacking me for people facing court summons for council tax arrears Pat Cleary of the Green Party has become an apologist for the Tory / LibDem coalition.

The fact is that the Government cut Wirral’s Council Tax Benefit funding by £3.3m.

As a result, the council was placed in the invidious position of being forced to choose between reducing support for some of the poorest people in the borough or making even more savage cuts to services.

In framing the budget for 2013/14 my priority was to protect front-line services.

If Mr Cleary believes that the council should have cut more services he needs to say which ones.

I will take no lessons from the Green Party on helping the poor.

Brighton Council, led by the Greens, has just presided over a horrendous bin strike because it wanted to cut the pay of low-paid council workers.

Mr Cleary should be ashamed.

Councillor Phil Davies Leader of the Labour Group Wirral Council