I SEE that Bury Council has yet again approached the cut in government funding in the usual manner of attacking the bottom of the tree with a whacking great chainsaw and the top of the tree with a pair of secateurs.

It is time for them to apologise to the council taxpayers for wasting their money on fruitless court cases, and pay employees what they are owed, as have all the other councils concerned. Manchester Council has informed their taxpayers that 41 per cent of job losses will be in management — will Bury Council inform us of what percentage will be trimmed from Bury’s management branch? As usual, consultations are behind closed doors and decisions instructed to employees (usually by email) and people and services affected instructed not to discuss the situation — whatever happened to a person’s right to free speech?

The people responsible for even contemplating cutting services to the most vulnerable in our society, the young and the elderly, should hang their heads in shame. How much will be saved by sacking lollipop patrols or ceasing to provide a library and talking books service to the housebound? Would it be equal to the cost of keeping a mayor in office for a year? Would it be equal to the cost of new lighting that is being put in place on the outside of the Town Hall?

As for the losses incurred, year- on-year, of the four white elephants that are called civic halls, or suites, if the council intends to keep any of these facilities, they need to enter the 21st century and market them properly to the needs of the people of the borough, which is evidently not what is happening at present.

I expect that the headlines in the Bury Times in the next few weeks will be how much the council tax will be increasing in April — as we live in a borough that already has substandard roads, substandard lighting, with swingeing cuts made to services that people pay for and, at the moment, have not been made public. I suggest that every council taxpayer make their voice heard, because every single thing lost will never be restored and will affect every one of us and our families at some point in our lives. Do you really want elderly people’s homes closed and sheltered housing sold off? It is bad enough that we will have no maternity unit, and probably, in the future, no local hospital.

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