SIR — It was suggested at a recent parish forum meeting that more people should stand for their parish councils to give decisions a fresh perspective. As a result of this, we have received several bitter complaints. Parishioners say that the real problem is that some senior chairmen of parish councils are holding these positions for far too long and behaving like dictators. They allege some make decisions personally and then put them forward for a vote by a public show of hands and that peer pressure forces councillors to vote along with what the chairman says, for fear of being frozen out by the chairman and the clique so often built around them. These complaints have come about because last year Exmoor Uprising successfully requested the use of the ballot box for the three senior chairs and vice-chairs at Exmoor National Park Authority instead of a show hands for this very reason. To gain democracy immediately at parish level, this idea must be proposed at the very start of parish councils' annual voting meetings this year and decided by the ballot box. Then if agreed, the votes for chairmanships can take place in the same way. To prevent manipulation by only one person being proposed, it is suggested that if a single candidate is proposed they should have a yes or no vote on them, possibly with a two thirds majority. You will get a far more democratic parish council. Of course you will still get cliques, but at least they won't have such unacceptable power. It will be interesting to see how many parish chairmen support this proposal. Molly Groves, Exmoor Uprising.