Your Letters
P. Parkes response to Councillor Peter Smith's Letter in the Reporter. For some reason, the Reporter refused to print his letter, here it is...
Latest - The Reporter finally published it on 16th May.
Hands-up all those Wigan Council taxpayers, who have recently received a 9.2% pay increase on their basic wage, with or without it being performance related! Thought not.
I wonder what productivity increases and cost reductions our councillors have committed themselves to, in exchange for theirs, surely Councillor Smith is not using the profligacy of other local Labour dominated councils to justify Wigan's tax increases? - Councillor Smith says that most services provided are subject to independent inspection by government watchdogs. - What about the services not covered? - Who are they for and how much do they cost?
Councillor Smith says his obsessions are education, social services, road safety and re-cycling - Coincidentally the government has granted Wigan an extra 8.317 million pounds for 2002/2003 with priority to be given to education and social services, together with an above inflation increase for environmental protective and cultural services - Councillor Smith should thus be able to rid himself of his obsessions with a few strokes of the pen and a chequebook - Furthermore an additional extra grant has been provided by government for all shire districts, police and fire authorities - Which all begs the question, is Wigan's 4.9% tax increase a result of council efficiency as Councillor Smith would have us believe, or because of all those massive extra government grants? - Also what would the increase have been without them? - Perhaps Councillor Smith could now obsess himself with something that obsesses everyone else, ridding our streets of violent drunks, muggers, druggies, burglars and mobs of abusive youths who make the lives of thousands of decent law abiding people a daily misery.
One thing is clear from Councillor Smith's letter, there will be no end to the influx of illegal immigrants to Wigan, whilst we have a Labour Council.
The day can't be far off, when instead of "God Save The Queen", we will all be expected to sing - "Come and join us".
In future my vote in local elections will go to the candidate who puts the needs and interests of genuine Wigan people before those of chancers and opportunists from Eastern Europe, the Middle East and everywhere else where Britain is seen as scroungers paradise - Genuine asylum seekers, yes, leeches, no.
Someone once said, if you want your councillor to work, then vote him or her out - I shall be doing my bit in the coming elections.
Yours sincerely,
P. Parkes
(address supplied)