LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Unnecessary gamble to save top jobs is doomed

SO, Rotherham Council is to consider taking it upon itself to foot the bill for a town centre development that the private sector has discounted. And what is the reason why the private sector has declined to get involved?

Well that is because the investment/profit ratio simply does not add up.

Also, just how much desire is there for a cinema? We haven’t got one now, so why should we necessarily want one in the future?

I for one would certainly not drive into town and park my car, and then go to the cinema only to come out and find the car quite possibly vandalised or slapped with a parking fine by the money raising bandits, er sorry parking management companies, because I was a few minutes overdue. But I suppose I could always park on the double yellows on Wellgate without consequence.

Why then has Rotherham Council decided to gamble £47m of public money on a development that I cannot see to be as “essential” as they claim, more pie in the sky delusion, but what these schemes most definitely do is to secure the positions of certain grossly overpaid public employees.

Furthermore, do not the individual borough councillors recall the very similar and very recent All Saints Buildings farrago, when the public purse lost the redevelopment scheme and consequently the rental income from so many retail outlets and offices together with the loss of the associated business rates, and now what we have there is a park where the druggies and drunks hang out.

Again, lousy decision making and you can bet your bottom dollar that this eight screen cinema scheme (really? eight screens, really?) would ultimately cost considerably more than £47m, way more, because publicly-funded projects always cost way more than the bait the borough councillors are initially tempted with.

I must not be the only one to recall the old fairground, where for most of the year town centre employees and shoppers would park their cars for free and thereby provide a massive support to the commercial viability of the town.

A large free car park with landscaped areas by the river and canal side and perhaps a few modest shops or cafes would serve workers and shoppers of the town far more than a gamble on yet another All Saints Building type of grandiose project.

Rob Foulds, Bawtry Road, Bramley