The actor, Robert Lindsay, is fondly remembered for his role as Tooting Popular Front's Wolfie Smith from the late 1970s BBC sitcom, Citizen Smith ('power to the people', he cried!).

But this cry for grassroots involvement in local government is still relevant today.

It is the cornerstone of many initiatives talking about community engagement and empowerment, consultation and self-determination.

One such initiative, 'a community governance review', will be imposed by B&NES on a small area in north Somerset currently administered by Norton Radstock Town Council.

B&NES decided to carry out this review following the presentation of a 'petition' organised by local Conservatives and their supporters in Midsomer Norton. Sadly B&NES won't allow anybody to verify its authenticity.

However, the council decided to ignore the opportunity to undertake a community governance review of any other part of Bath and North East Somerset at the same time. This is against official advice which cautions against such a piecemeal approach and strongly suggests that the scope of any review should be considered in more holistic terms.

So why is B&NES singling out Norton-Radstock? Of course, it's all about politics.

Conservative councillors traditionally don't do well in this area (no Tory candidates stood for election in 2007) so they see this as a way to destroy something they perceive as the enemy.

The real scandal of the B&NES community governance review is that they have denied the citizens of Bath an opportunity to establish their own parishes democratically serving their communities.

Power to the people is just as relevant to the people of Twerton, Weston, Southdown, etc, as it is to the people of Midsomer Norton. It should be relatively easy to enact a 'petition' – all you need is a few hundred signatures to a petition calling for a review in your neighbourhood.

Citizens of the city of Bath unite: you have nothing to lose but your B&NES.

PETER SAS The Down Clandown, Radstock