Most people will applaud her efforts to hold a future debate on the subject before the next local government election and a possible community poll.

Of course there will always be those people who claim they have had perfect teeth owing to the addition of fluoride while there are many who have excellent teeth without it.

However, it is difficult to understand when other countries with their superior advanced tests and research, particularly in Europe, have either discontinued or not introduced fluoride to its water supply.

Despite this it appears we lag behind in the use of this poisonous substance. Previously it took us a while before we introduced warning signs on toothpaste and similarly with DDT Insecticide which had been banned overseas long before here.

We can now only hope that a delay does not recur in the interest of health and cost to the community.

D E West, Port Macquarie