Like Councillor Morris Bright, I am one of the non-executive directors on the board of Elstree Film Studios, and have been for the past year since Hertsmere Borough Council resumed overseeing the running of the studios.

The board is currently comprised of six directors. One of them is the most senior council officer, the acting chief executive. The other five are councillors from all the three political parties. This cross-party, un-political, and quite rightly unpaid, board works hard to help ensure the safeguarding of the studios as a place of film and television production.As the studios are the council's single biggest asset, I believe it very appropriate that Mr Bright should oversee them.I am dismayed to see comments made, for the first time recently, as to the "unsuitability" of Mr Bright to be chairman of the board, due to a "perceived" (but unjustified) conflict of interest.At no stage over the past 12 months have any of the board members from any of the political parties raised any questions about potential or possible conflicts of interest relating to Mr Bright.I am a firm believer in transparency and cannot see how he has been anything but transparent in relation to his work outside the council - as a film historian, writer and so on. Therefore, I do not believe his transparency is the real issue.I find it strange no one complained when Mr Bright conducted a question and answer session with a producer and writer at the local cinema as part of the Elstree film festival last summer. So I must be forgiven for questioning why these issues have arisen so close to the local elections.The studios are a great asset to Elstree and Borehamwood and should never be "used" in this way as a political football. They are flourishing and continue to be something we should all be very proud of.Councillor Hannah David Conservative, Hillside Ward