Dear Sir,
As the evenings draw in and the memories of summer fade,
my thoughts are drawn towards the local elections of next May.
These will provide the first opportunity in two years for
the electors of the Borough to express an opinion on how their Councillors and
the Council as a whole have executed their stewardship of the well being of the
town.
It would seem that measured against a multitude of
indicators, the town of Bolton is falling down the league
tables faster than the Wanderers.
Since all local authorities are suffering from reductions
in Government funding on a broadly equal basis, the question must be asked as to
why it is that our town is performing more poorly than others.
I would suggest that the answer to this is that the
Leadership, the Councillors and the senior officers have become tired, sclerotic
and devoid of vision and, bluntly, have run out of ideas.
There are two ways forward. One is to explore the
possibility of an Elected Mayor. A petition containing some 9,000 plus names
would be sufficient to trigger a referendum on this matter. The only problem
would be that, as in other areas, the Leader of the Council would probably
finish up as Elected Mayor rather than say a prominent and successful
entrepreneur and we would thus be no further forward.
The other way is for candidates from outside the three
main parties to gain a foothold in the Council chamber. After all, every journey
starts with one step.
The election of independent candidates would be ideal but
there may also be the prospect of UKIP candidates being put forward in selected
wards to break the log jam of traditional voting patterns.
However this may turn out, if the electors vote for the
status quo, then I fear that the rot will continue and this once proud town will
finish up on its knees and in the gutter.
Paul Richardson
Ripon Close
Little Lever.
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