Transfer is ‘madness’

Mar 18 2009 Birkenhead News

IT’S a mad, mad, mad, mad world!

After attending a very well organised seminar by Wirral CVS about asset transfer and the possibilities of what third sector organisations might be able to do to save our local amenities, I find myself totally dumbfounded.

Do the government and local authority really think we are stupid?

Let me get this right. The council will sell back to us (the people) public buildings already owned by us.

To do this we volunteers must apply for funding from pots of money we have already paid for indirectly as taxpayers.

Only this time we sign on the dotted line, making us responsible for these enterprises and take no recompense, work full time and, should we not be able to make these viable “businesses” work, we will lose these facilities anyway.

I thought the whole idea of councils was to run these for the community – that’s what we pay them for.

What happened to the idea of worth? Now it would seem we pay fat cats for doing nothing and expect good-hearted volunteers to do all the work!

The whole thing is madness!

B FLEET,

via e-mail

What a waste

WIRRAL Council states that many of their library buildings are 'old' and 'energy-inefficient'.

Is this the reason why they are proposing to close Eastham Library, which they extensively modernised with new windows, a computer room and added a One-Stop Shop, all within the last 10 years?

The money poured into this building will now be totally wasted. I would very much like to know the cost of that refurbishment.

This sudden change in plan, without consultation with the residents, will cause more financial loss than continuing to maintain this already updated building, which is used extensively by young and old.

MARY HODGSON,

Eastham

Equal rights for all

MR NUNN wrote last week disapproving of the council’s municipal bank plan and also with disparaging and sarcastic comments about the equality and diversity programme of Wirral Council.

Like Mr Nunn I am ignorant about the content of this programme and what it costs. And, like Mr Nunn (I am guessing), I am male and white.

He may be unaware of it but he and I are part of the dominant majority that has benefited from decades, indeed centuries, of discriminatory practices, policies and laws.

If Mr Nunn was Mrs Nunn, and in a job where she was being paid less for the same work or denied the flexible working conditions necessary for a mother to develop a career, she would be less disparaging of the efforts being made to right this wrong.

If he was black or gay or disabled and found himself being ridiculed, patronised and discriminated against by colleagues and managers he would be less sarcastic about the work of equality officers.

I think a council-run municipal bank is a great idea. Maybe it will help those Wirral people wanting to own homes and local small businesses needing working capital that the big banks are squeezing out.

And what if it is run by cautious, middle-of-the-road, bonus-free, municipal managers? Better them than the innovating, buccaneering, profiteering executives that have got us into the present financial crisis.

PETER BUCKLEY,

Heswall

Made to pay

SO now we have it, after much political blood-letting, Wirral’s Lib/Lab ruling alliance have decided to raise our council taxes by 4.4%.

The recent political arguments about closing some of Wirral’s libraries and leisure facilities, important though they were, have distracted from a more fundamental argument that all the political parties have failed to address.

Wirral Council has agreed to an above inflation rise in council tax that is of the same magnitude as one that it might apply in non-recessionary times.

They have passed a budget which seems oblivious to the fact that the current recession is having a critical financial impact upon the majority of council tax payers, particularly those not on the local government pay roll.

Despite mounting hardship, our citizens are expected to pay ever increasing council taxes to sustain legions of Wirral Council employees in secure employment.

Have our senior politicians not noticed that the average Wirral taxpayer’s family wealth has been reduced substantially and is still falling?

Working hours are shortened, wage rises denied, actual wages reduced, family members made redundant, yet they are still expected to pay increased council taxes to sustain Wirral Council’s vast annual expenditure.

Staff wages alone amount to nearly half this amount.

LES SPENCER,

Ex-Wirral councillor

Too many bags

RE: the letter “Charity Mystery”.

I am in total agreement with Mr & Mrs Dale.

I have a stack of charity bags. I feel bad about giving throwing them away but it is getting ridiculous.

The irony is there are a number of charity shops nearby so actually taking items there is sometimes more convenient. I can take them as and when I have any.

Y CULLEN,

via e-mail

Clean up the mess

I AM writing to complain about all the dog mess in Rock Ferry.

Near enough every road is covered in it and I’m fed up of having to clean my son’s shoes on the way to school and on the way home.

Whenever I step out of my gate, I have to check to see if it’s clear.

The paths all around his school are really disgusting.

Something should be done. Bring back dog wardens – I clean up after my dog, why can’t everyone else?

GAIL ROBERTS

via e-mail