AS COUNCILLOR Bill Hartnett has agreed to take in refugees, he obviously intends to take some of them into his own residence – or at least he has made plans to help house a few of them with friends and family, hasn’t he?

I doubt it. A case of “not in my back yard” by him maybe.

Consider this. One million refugees have travelled to Europe. If only one in four was an able bodied man _ and surely they must be to have endured the journey they have taken – then that is at least 250,000 men who could have joined their own country’s army and fought their oppressors. Add to that, each person claims to have paid thousands of pounds to traffickers to make the journey, which would run into hundreds of millions of pounds. That could have supported their own country’s fight, by funding the army, which they could have joined.

I don’t want to support more people in this country or town, through my taxes. Especially when they don’t seem to attempt to help themselves.

Why do a minority of dogooders speak and do for the majority of the people? So Bill – and anybody else who wants the refugees here – can look after them and pay for them out of their own money, not mine. This country already spends far too much on overseas aid, in my opinion. How about looking after the vulnerable people in our own towns and country first?

I believe I’m saying what many people are thinking, but are too frightened to say.

Tony Jones Southcrest Redditch