‘Unnatural beast’ drove away local democracy

“I was born in 1948, just after the end of World War Two, in which my parents’ generation had fought and died in a battle against intolerance, monstrous extremism and an inhuman attempt to exterminate the Jewish population of Europe. That nearly 70 years later we should still be seeing such evil persecution is, to me, beyond all belief. We owe it to those who suffered and died so horribly not to repeat the horrors of the past” KIRKLEES’ main activity these days seems to be that of shedding its responsibilities wherever possible – even to the extent of selling off the properties which it had inherited from previous generations at muchreduced prices after 40-odd years of neglect.

The Government has so starved the council of cash that basic maintenance cannot be afforded, and luxuries are utterly out of the question, except for the council’s own pet projects of course.

For instance the deal with Tesco – that the company would take the old Sports Centre and its adjacent site and in exchange would provide the council with a new Leisure Centre.

Tesco appeared to go off that arrangement, but the Sports Centre was still demolished together with the adjacent multi-storey flats – and the council proudly announced a new, larger and more extravagant sports hall, the cost of which was deemed to be and has remained “of commercial confidentiality”.

Efforts to obtain the information under the Freedom of Information Act were refused