LIKE many others in the Community Education Service, I was shocked to read - for the first time - the list of closures announced in the Bury Times (June 13).

I have written many letters and had a recent meeting with the council leader and chairman of education asking them to keep the community involved. We deserve better than to hear things this way!

The pre-election statements trotted out by councillors, of their wish for a community-led service, now appear to be yet another soundbite.

We all recognise that the cut to the Community Education Service was bound to cause serious problems. But a lack of advice sought from working professionals and those intimately involved on a daily basis; unfulfilled promises (where was the promised advice on gaining trust status?); mismanagement; and, most recently, inactivity, have all made the situation far worse.

To now state that the priority is to retain staff is hurtful to the 30-plus who have reluctantly taken early retirement and to those who, on the day that his article was published, received advanced notice of redundancy if they do not feature in the seriously reduced workforce. Turning to the Mosses, its future seems to depend on action from a one-line option - stated at the outset by the acting chief education officer - that the town can't support two central facilities. This has been challenged at every step and is as seriously flawed now as it was at the start.

The Mosses is the jewel in the centre of a many-jewelled community "crown" with a remit quite different from the equally successful arts and crafts centre. The building has been maintained internally to a high standard, largely by voluntary effort. It has years of life left in it. In the chairman of education's review of the social and educational value of CES activities it was top of the list. Has this no bearing now?

The Mosses is home to many in our community and is used around the clock. The council is misguided if it believes that this success story can be transported lock, stock and barrel, to another centre.

What about the many disabled people using the centre who won't have access to the arts and crafts centre? What about the youth club and the work being done within the local Asian community?

We are not talking about a transfer but an act of municipal vandalism to a vital part of community life in Bury. Our ruling councillors will carry eternal shame if they continue with the destruction of a facility that embodies everything that the Labour Party stands for nationally.

"User groups will, however, be consulted," says the article. Well, the council leader and chairman of education will need to personally explain their intentions to the communities at the Mosses, Whitefield Centre and at Ramsbottom, because none of us within the service can begin to understand them.

GORDON HUBERT,

chairman,

Community Education Council.

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