LETTER: How can we slim down Lancashire County Council?

There are going to be county council elections quite soon.

How do I come to this conclusion? Because the letters page are often full of could-be councillors, notably Labour ones, two of the favourites are David Johns and Mark Porter.

I wonder if you have noticed anything else, fellow reader? These guys want to be our county councillors but don’t in any letter I have read tell us one single thing they would do if – and it’s getting a big if – we were daft enough to elect them.

There is nothing – no proposals, no new ideas, just constant slagging off of the Government of which, following their election or otherwise, they will have no influence on at all.

It looks like they are downloading party drivel from the internet and doing a slight rescramble and put their names on it. Not very original, chaps, and not what anybody is interested in.

But let me tell you what your Labour Party did when last in County Hall.

You gave me and a few others a council tax bill that was horrendous.

I pay over £1,500 a year, more than some London council areas. You stuffed lots of plush seats with jobs for the boys at salaries most of us here in Pendle can only dream of, and threw my money around like confetti.

But I have news for you. I am running out of it. The present Conservative County Council is making some attempts to cut your prolific spending, I would like them to do more, but that’s not the point. We want to know what you’re going to do to reduce our rates. That’s all we want to hear from you.

And don’t come back with your standard weeping list – we would have to shut nurseries, old folk’s homes and everything you can think of that’s emotive.

No you don’t. There are a lot of large backsides still sat on plush chairs earning salaries we can only dream of here in Pendle, so next week tell us how you are going to slim down the county council, how you would protect my meagre pension from further ravages of spendthrift Labour politicians, and you might just get someone to vote for you on what you will do, not how much you don’t like the Government. That’s meaningless drivel.

MICHAEL SUTCLIFF

Kibble Grove, Brierfield