FOR as long as I can remember - 40 years - Bury was always an unpretentious, small, industrial northern town. But nowadays all the major manufacturers have gone, leaving Bury Council as the biggest employer.

Local councillors, in the main, used to look after our interests fairly well, trying to keep down the rates while improving facilities. There was no desire for the grandiose or the will to emulate neighbouring Manchester, or other big cities.

Now the town hall seems hell bent on spending as much as possible of our poor wages or pensions on extravagant schemes. It all adds up to millions of pounds overspent or wasted.

Vast sums have been wasted on cycle lanes for a few cyclists.

All this money could be so much better spent to clean the town; to provide a regular bus service; to provide self-financed school buses; to encourage business industry and shoppers to come to Bury, instead of driving them away. There are many more worthwhile schemes that do not cost an arm and a leg and can benefit residents.

There is a real need for selfless, dedicated-to-residents, councillors with a little bit of common sense who can curb all this overspending, year in year out.

But instead of doing that, present-day councillors are too busy scoring political points and following party lines and "politically correct" dogma, while jockeying for position among themselves. They fail to see the harm they do.

The town should not be used as a stepladder for over-ambitious individuals to launch their political careers. We deserve better!

PEEVED RATEPAYER,

Lowercroft, Bury.

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