SO yet another department of Bury Council is failing Bury's taxpayers ("Rents go up as arrears spiral", Bury Times, Feb 11).

As the Opposition we agree with the Auditor's comments and think that Bury's housing department is in a diabolical, shambolic mess, brought about - in our opinion - by an ineffective, inefficient Labour-controlled council. It has long since passed its sell-by date and has for too long been able to hide its shortcomings behind the previous Government.

The Conservative Group on Bury Council, despite being thwarted by Labour's tactics, have highlighted the dire situation in housing at every opportunity, and several times during 1999 publicly called for the resignation of the chairman. Although the situation regarding rent arrears is horrendous, what is of particular concern to us are the tens of thousands of pounds which are continually being written-off as irrecoverable, and the number of properties which have been allowed to remain empty. There are instances where individual tenants have been allowed to run-up rent arrears of several thousand pounds and then disappear without trace.

Bury Council has been controlled by Labour for 14 years and they are now considering spending a huge amount of taxpayers money to sort out the housing department, action which will probably mean even more lengthy reports and pie-in-the-sky strategies accompanied, we are sure, by the inevitable glossy brochures.

As far as we are concerned, Bury's Labour Council alone must accept full responsibility for the situation in housing. There is, in our opinion, no question of hiding behind outside influences or blaming anyone else.

The leader of the council is shortly to embark on a sponsored goodwill trip to Chaminimani in Zimbabwe to promote and develop relations between our two communities. It might be a good idea for him to first take a trip around Bury and see the conditions that some council tenants are living in due to the lack of repairs. It is tempting to suggest that he make the trip to Zimbabwe on a one-way ticket and takes his fellow Labour councillors with him.

COUNCILLOR DOROTHY GUNTHER,

deputy leader,

Conservative Group,

Bury Council.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.