LETTER: Cut councillors and save money

However, the heading of his letter only underlines what I was trying to say; which is that unless all the other departments do their bit, it will all be a waste of his time and taxpayers’ money.

What is the point of him keeping the hanging baskets in tip-top condition if the parks department, operational services and Lancashire County Council allow the rest of the area to go to pot?

As I said in my letter, town and parish councils were really set up not to give us plebs more say in the running of our area, but purely as a means of extracting more money in taxes.

Great play is being made of the fact Pendle Council is not increasing its precept. Fine, but what about the town and parish council’s precepts?

I am sure there will be many who remember the time when the only precept you paid was to the borough, but those who govern us have realised if you split the package up, you can make more money by charging for the different pieces.

Because they have very limited powers, I would question as to whether we really need town and parish councils.

Nelson has 15 borough councillors and 24 town councillors. Granted some have dual roles, but do we really need so many? It has been suggested in order to cut costs the number of councillors should be reduced. Would this not be an ideal opportunity to do so?

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