• IN what mathematical universe is £419,339 “nearly half-a-million-pounds”? (£400k spent on experts for park revamp, August 11).

It’s actually nearly £420k, a tidy sum to be sure and perhaps an extravagant sum to spend on some plans for a park. But it’s not “nearly” £500k.

Would you inflate your own circulation figures by the same percentage (16 per cent)? Such exaggeration dilutes the authority of your reporting.

HC JOSEPH
(aged 60, “nearly” 70)
Barnsbury Street, N1