A hotline for people in Manchester to offer suggestions on how the council should spend its £468m budget received just one phone call.

The city council also received six letters and 21 e-mails in the month-long exercise. Thousands of leaflets were sent out to residents with a phone number, e-mail and postal address. Council bosses admitted disappointment at the response but said it was still an important consultation.

About 2,000 copies of a leaflet with contact information were printed and sent to community centres and libraries between Christmas and New Year. It was also reproduced in Manchester People, the town hall newspaper delivered to 200,000 households in the city. The consultation finished on 31 January.

Councillor Bernard Priest, Manchester City Council's executive member for finance, denied the consultation was a waste of time. He said: "It is always disappointing if there is a limited response to this type of consultation, but it's really important to give taxpayers a chance to let us know their views on how their money is spent."

As an employee of the illustrious council in question my guess is everybody is happy with what they've got.

The call centre in Miles Platting wasn't really geared up for more calls.