I WAS interested to read the comments of Cllr Jon Barry (Citizen: December 2) regarding the bus station proposals and consider this as evidence that since the demise of Labour it's now possible to hold a much wider forum at the town hall on this and other issues.

The bus station is an interesting proposal and in an ideal world with no cash restraints we would love to provide all things to all people but operating in the real world we must realise that we have a council which has in the recent past lost huge amounts of public cash on a number of projects and therefore need to consider carefully how we spend, if only to boost public confidence in our performance. Is it not worth considering reasonable alternatives if they mean we can still provide a service but at a fraction of the cost to the public? I think it is. Spending £1.5million on a new (mainly-glass construction) bus station could mean, if we are not careful, that we end up with the most costly target for vandals this administration has ever funded. What's wrong with looking at a smaller station (or satellite bays), covering less of an area and selling the rest of the land for town centre redevelopment? This would still provide the facility but at a fraction of the cost and we could even end up a few bob to the good. Also one has to ask why we should be the main contributors to a facility which will benefit private bus companies as much as it will benefit the public - should they not be invited to contribute to the cost? It seems sensible to me... but perhaps that is the problem.

Cllr Barry wrote to your paper a couple of weeks ago and quite rightly challenged one of the main stays of the old guard, Cllr Ian Barker, to explain some of the actions of the former Labour administration (no surprise Cllr Barker hasn't reponded - is that down to guts, courtesy or some other explanation?) and also commented that he preferred the council as it is run now where everyone has a say - not just the dictatorial Labour mob. I'm sure he'd agree that this and other suggestions are at least worth looking at in the same climate.

Cllr Nick Westwell

Independent

Harbour Ward

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