Our new MP, has anyone seen her at a surgery?

Two weeks after Mrs Munt had been returned to Westminster I telephoned the contact number on her website hoping to talk to her and book an appointment at a local MP's surgery. I needed her help to address a problem I had been unable to resolve with the local Primary Care Trust (PCT).

I got through only to a telephone answering machine and so I left a message – I also sent an e-mail to her published e-mail address asking to be contacted.

I waited a week and then sent another e-mail and telephoned the number again, still only an answering machine so I left another message. The next day I telephoned again, got the answering machine yet again, but did not leave another message instead I sent yet another e-mail days asking to meet with her at a MP surgery.

After over a month I got a phone call from someone who explained they had not set up the office yet but that I would soon get a response. Another month went by and then a letter arrived that indicated that Mrs Munt had written to the PCT but due to not having met me her letter had not stated the case in sufficient detail and had been batted away by the PCT chairman.

Since this PCT issue occurred, in mid-May, I have discovered another classic piece of bureaucratic muddle that I thought our MP should be aware of and which she might be able to resolve by writing to the Government minister concerned.

A month has gone by since I wrote to her on this issue and again no reply. In a matter of days, our hard-working MP will be off on the summer recess of some 10-plus weeks – will this mean a 12-week wait for a reply?

How many other constituents have had a similar experience and can anyone tell me when the first MP surgery will be?

Alan Bennetts Main Road Westhay Glastonbury

A spokesman at Tessa Munt's office in The Borough, Cheddar Road, Wedmore, responds: "It emerged in a telephone conversation Tessa Munt had with Mr Bennett that he had not received a copy of the letter Ms Munt wrote to the PCT on June 15 representing Mr Bennett's case.

"Mr Bennett's comments were made therefore, in light of not having seen this key letter.

"Ms Munt has since ensured Mr Bennett has a copy of this letter which applied all his requests and which was written at the speed of response required."

An advertisement for her surgeries appears on page 49.

I am sure that Ms Munt will be exonerated and be declared not guilty with regard to council tax irregularities.

What concerns me more is the sacrifice of principles that she held and that were once held by her party.

Liberal Democrat supporters have been stripped of any credibility as the national party prostrate themselves to their coalition partners, in their desperation for some sort of power, as they support Tory policies that they would have opposed.

As a party they are now redundant.

Andy Merryfield Chairman Wells Constituency Labour Party

Glastonbury

My late father-in-law had a saying I thought was quite good: "Life is like a boomerang".

How right he was, in recent elections the Liberal Democrats have run negative campaigns focusing on smears, insinuation and character assassination.

How appropriate that now Tessa Munt should find herself in the position of having to defend her actions.

Whatever the outcome lets hope that the Liberal Democrats will learn that people who live in glass houses should not throw stones and start to fight elections on policies instead.

Graham Noel Westhay