IT came as no real surprise to read in the Post (January 5) about the proposed rent rise for tenants in West Dunbartonshire, after all it is easier to dip the pockets of the tenants than to work hard at cutting out waste within West Dunbartonshire Council (WDC).

I also read the proposed details in the West Dunbartonshire magazine that the council sends out - a magazine that is posted to us in full colour and never tells bad news about the council.

Scrapping this pointless magazine would surely save thousands, but no, let's dip the tenants.

Before any direct rise for the tenants is considered, surely the council should look at every possible saving within its own workings. It would seem on the face of it the council is not looking hard enough.

Councillor Willie Hendrie claims the rise is essential to maintain high quality living standards for tenants through maintaining repairs.

If he means crumbling houses, damp, badly heated flats and some houses showing signs of subsidence, then he has a good point. Not that long ago the council engaged consultants to assess the state of existing housing stock - at a reputed cost of £90,000 - and the examination consisted of counting cupboards, a monumental waste of our money and a shameful extravagance by a council which claims every penny has to be watched.

This proposed rise will drive hundreds, if not thousands, into poverty at a time when everything we use is going up and up.

The last thing the residents need is for the council to make matters a lot worse.

Everyone knows the financial state of the country and WDC is no different from any other council, though the debt is greatly smaller than most.

But to try and do a Westminster and drag it all back within a short space of time is only damaging the very people all councillors pledged to protect when elected.

It would seem that the residents and voters are merely cash cows to pay the debts of WDC - not needed till you need our vote.

The council has to think very carefully about this proposed rise, WDC is placing the burden on to the few, they are placing the burden on those who can least afford to shoulder it.

You pledged to protect - driving residents in to poverty is not protecting them, it's destroying them.

Daniel Lennie, Dalmuir