SIR,

The diagnosis of some of the problems in Lowton and Golborne offered by the new councillor for Lightshaw ward apparently appealed to the electorate but viable solutions were not so evident.

Deployment of police is not within the power of the local council. Greater Manchester Police have to allocate their resources across the whole patch to carry out their pattern of policing.

The amount of youth work undertaken by the Metro Youth Service is necessarily limited by finance but has achieved good results with the help of devoted staff and volunteers who understand the needs of young people and work to help them.

The suggestions of expanded youth services and facilities with full time, trained staff needs to be, but has not been costed nor are there any ideas of how it could be resourced, not just for Golborne but for other wards with similar problems. This might be an opportunity for people concerned to form community groups to provide practical help.

The programme presented reveals either total naivety or a total ignorance of how local government functions and the problems with working fairly within the constraints of public finance, the limits of a budget and an acceptable level of Council Tax .

In the meantime we have lost the services of a hard-working, experienced and well informed councillor for our ward and for the Metro as a whole.

Mrs D Kelly,

Beardsmore Drive,

Lowton