40 years of council mess

Sir Alec Clegg of the West Riding believed that the newly formed councils were made up of areas of deprivation and would not receive sufficient funding to cope with their needs. He was mainly concerned about schools. How has our RMBC fared over the past 40 years?

Did not the first leader Mr Jack Layden begin the town centre decline by taking RMBC into partnership with a businessman to create Parkgate? Counting footfall is no use — counting money falling into shops/businesses tells us. Are not present agreements and policies creating Tesco land?

Have the PFI agreements entered into to close all the swimming pools in order to have four leisure centres, the knocking down of old schools for new buildings (the latest being the £2 million loan for a new school in Rotherham) plus the huge amount involved in the development of Riverside been good value for money investments? Note ‘OUR money’.

The real problem is with the unelected officers and the cabinet excluding the electorate and local councils being involved far more. The present system has led to a £600m debt according to Mr Cowles (Letters, December 13) — most of it being haled as ‘good for Rotherham’ — when they cannot afford to cut bowling greens or support Herringthorpe stadium.

As I indicated at the beginning, Rotherham (and Barnsley and Doncaster) have never received adequate funding from the Government, but their efforts to use what they have received have been unsatisfactory.

Who is going to untangle this mess in the next 40 years?