LOCAL government doesn't appear to interest anyone very much, and no wonder. I was present, for the first time, at an area board meeting regarding council tax, where there was a presentation from the officer in charge at Bury Council, Mike Owen.

In Bury Council there appears to be a management culture of waste and muddle, in particular muddled priorities.

When they are confronted by serious problems which, I understand is the situation with social services' very tight budget, priorities ought to be plain and simple. Indeed, they are to anyone whose mind set has not been corrupted by state sector mentality! On the subject of waste, a little birdie tells me that £24,000 a year is spent on food for councillors and the like when they are present or not at meetings in the town hall. Surely, on their allowances, they can provide their own meals.

This is typical of what is wrong with local government mentality. It pursues low priorities at the expense of high ones and draws staff further and further away from the people they should serve, behind ever increasing expensive mountains of paperwork.

And it is our money that is being wasted. It is our sick and old and dispossessed who are being neglected. Yet there has been no suggestion of any drastic changes, apart from council tax being increased if there are to be any improvements.

Labour have had control of Bury Council for more than 16 years and in government for five. There is surely no one else to blame by now.

Our town's finances need a new broom and a new bank manager with different priorities. Let's give the Tories a chance.

TRUE BLUE