Delusions of grandeur

Quite apart from the admitted reason for the sale of the freehold of the centre (right) being nothing other than the council wanting better premises, there are a lot of facts missing.

Mention is made of the rental income being £113,000 per year, and the rental expenditure of the present Eagle Street buildings being £86,000, which, in my book, works out at a benefit to the council of £27,000 a year, which will obviously be lost if this silly scheme is forced through.

Further, while only rough figures are given, it seems like there is an adverse difference of about £300,000 between the stated £1.7 million a new building would cost, and the amount recovered from the freehold sale.

No mention is made of this whatsoever, and it would be more than somewhat interesting to hear what steps will be taken to cover this loss.

Assuming that the projected new building is actually built, then it is obviously going to cost money to run, unless our council has discovered a tree that actually does grow money. Again, no mention is made of whether the new edifice will be freehold or will have to have a lease negotiated; nor, for that matter, is there any mention of a mock-up, so that poor old Joe Public can see how his money is being wasted - because, after all, it is our money they are spending.

G BROADHURST (Mr), Sharples Street, Accrington.

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