NEWS last week of BMBC considering closing Radcliffe Civic Hall didn’t surprise me. Nothing this council will try surprises me any more.

The suggestion to close the venue losing the least amount of money doesn’t surprise me. The fact the Elizabethan Suite loses £200,000 a year doesn’t surprise me. Just how does a venue like that lose £4,000 a week? Well it is, after all, council run.

The reason they are considering closing (and probably will), is that it is in Radcliffe and since 1973 BMBC have systematically neglected to spend the revenue they raise from the town, on the town.

Go to Bury and it’s all flowers and displays with “Bury in Bloom”, but come to Radcliffe and you're knee deep in the crap on the streets. In Bury they build new hotels, shopping centres, entertainments and improved transit. In Radcliffe they close the schools, knock down the shops and build more car parks. The town is now full of hostels, refuges and rehabs. It’s not safe for dogs to walk the streets let alone people. Best Council? Compared to what?

I said the closure didn’t surprise me, that doesn't mean it doesn’t disgust me.

Andrew Clarkson Barlow St Radcliffe