YOUR back page article headlined "Council look to aid Shakers" (Nov 10), while welcome news to our fine football club, should be viewed with not a little caution. It is pleasing to see that the council in Bournemouth have been able to find ways of helping their own team, but I would wager that they are much better placed financially than Bury!
I think that Bury's chief executive and deputy council leader need to remember that as the current custodians of the public purse they have a duty to the council taxpayers of this borough. In the coming months we may have to be very prudent indeed, if the experience of Salford City Council, projected at £10 million cuts on current estimates, is to be repeated in other boroughs in the North West. There are so many competing demands in Bury and all could be considered creditable in their own right. There is, to give one example, the question of the Arts and Crafts Centre, under threat for some years now, and also the need for improvements in a number of local services that have undeniably suffered due to the cuts of previous years.
Councillors will have to grapple with these issues in the coming months and will, I suspect, not take too kindly to those two attempting to broker deals. The money with which they are bargaining, I would respectfully point out, is not theirs but belongs to the council taxpayers of this town.
As both Mr Dennis Taylor and Coun John Byrne must surely know, there is an obligation to council employees and council taxpayers that must be recognised as the most important of priorities in the months leading up to the setting of the council tax levy for 2001-02.
No one would deny that helping Bury FC is to be commended if it is financially possible for the council to do this and to meet its other commitments to the people of this town. If help is given and the council announces a budget next year that involves cuts in jobs, services and less money going to our locals schools, then both Mr Taylor and Coun Byrne will have a lot of explaining to do.
Proceed with caution gentlemen, please!
FAIR PLAY
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