IF only Councillor Mike Connolly (Yours Truly, Jan 30) had taken the time to read the Audit Commission report before replying to my earlier letter, he would have seen the criticisms to which I refer, in particular those on page 13 paragraph 47 where it says: "There have been significant problems in social services, which has a history of overspending, resulting in a statutory recommendation to address this by the District Auditor . . . "

All this seems like only yesterday. In fact it was April 2000 that Bury Council were removed from the list of councils subject to special measures resulting from a joint review report of March 1998 in which concerns were raised at that time by SSI inspectors. There has not been a lot of improvement in five years.

I am sure Coun Connolly knows all about this. Now we all know . . .

EILEEN SLINGSBY