Mr and Mrs Broom are right to ridicule Councillor Osbourne's jaunt to Seoul and also to question the actual need for a dedicated help desk.

I am unaware of such specific courtesies being made available to other ethnic minorities, some of whom have been members of our local community since well before the main influx from South Korea. In fact, if I were an immigrant from other parts of the Asian continent, I might feel aggrieved.

I have already written to Kingston's chief executive suggesting that greater benefits to the entire community would be achieved by offering: 1. Free Korean language courses to indigenous residents, so that we are able to converse in their own language if they profess to "not understand" when a problem needs to be resolved.

2. Free courses on the Highway Code for Koreans because many do not appear to understand our road signs, such as "no entry" or "one way".

In these times of record council tax, it is essential our money is used wisely and that priorities are identified, for the benefit of our Korean neighbours and, likewise, for other members of the community. Initiatives such as those I have described would provide infinitely better "value-for-money" than funding mutual admiration trips.

Chris Hall
Cavendish Road
New Malden