The initiative announced by Parliamentary Secretary Dr Chris Said that local councils will start opening on Saturdays is welcome news. This will enable those working elsewhere on a five day work week to visit the local council offices without they themselves taking a day off. Another consideration: Would I be correct in concluding that the new six day local councils’ working week was arrived at in agreement with the union(s) representing these workers? Apart from which, in a spirit of public dialogue, seeing that we are going through a time of international recession where the byword is to do more with less: Can one also hope that the extra opening hours on Saturday would be deducted from hours in the rest of the week during which practically no one visits the local council offices so that the expenditure will not be increased?

G. Bonett

Marsalforn