Is blame game some sort of joke?

I WOULD like to comment about the story reported in the Rochdale Observer about blaming Tory cuts for the Council Tax rise in Rochdale. Printed in the Rochdale Observer Saturday February 18, 2017.

The councillors mentioned in the report, council leader Richard Farnell, Councillor Allen Brett and the local Conservative leader Councillor Ashley Dearnley, just how do you think the public and voters of Rochdale are supposed to take all this?

Blaming each other for the cutbacks to services in Rochdale.

The Labour Councillors blaming the government and the Conservative blaming the last Labour Government. So who is to blame? Some sort of joke is it? What have we seen in the mean time:

1.The councillors involved in voting for themselves a 51 per cent pay rise for the council leaders and a 34 per cent pay rise for the rest of the councillors.

2. Over a million pounds spent on the river opening which is a loan that has to be paid off for the next 40 years.

3. Hiring or advertising for new staff for the council in the council’s media department or as some people put it wanting more “Spin Doctors”.

4. Reports of the council spending thousands of pounds on newspapers and magazines.

5. Millions of pounds spent on the river opening and also the amount of money that will have be spent maintaining the river opening in future years.

I am just giving examples of the above.

I am sure the public can name a lot more.

Just what other projects and plans the council have not told us about that are on the agenda in future we have not been told about yet?

All this going on while the council keep telling us that essential services have to be cut now and in the future, yet keep finding money for projects I have mentioned and any future vanity projects the council might have on the agenda in the future.

So why is it essential services keep being cut back and yet the council keep finding money when they want to for other things except essential services?

No difficulty is there for finding money like a pay rises for councillors! Kenneth Hall Fairway Milnrow

LOST MORAL AUTHORITY

IN a recent statement about the 4.99 per cent rise in Council Tax, council leader Richard Farnell claims that Prime Minister Theresa May has failed to ‘...maintain any semblance of fairness and credibility.’

It’s almost like he is living on a different planet - that’s exactly what residents in this borough are asking from him. He didn’t maintain any semblance of ‘fairness’ nor ‘credibility’ when voting himself a 51 per cent and a 34 per cent one for his Conservative and Labour colleagues.

It is true that RMBC is facing a financial predicament. It does face enormous pressures especially since it will have to raise all its funds through business rates from next year. The Revenue Support Grant from Government is being scrapped in favour of the council taking 100% of business rates. This means that the Council will be, for the first time ever, almost wholly responsible for its funding.

Whether you trust Richard Farnell and Allen Brett to entirely run our finances is a question for another day.

The council needs to adopt a more businessfriendly approach to try and attract more businesses into our borough and maximise revenue. I am unsure as to whether hiking parking charges will send out the ●●This image of Sunset overlooking Ogden and Roughbank was submitted by Iris Shepherd. Email your pictures to rochdaleobserver@menmedia.co. uk or upload them to flickr.com/groups/rochdalepics right message. Richard Farnell talks about the Council Tax rise as a ‘Tory one’. It’s not, it’s a Labour rise pure and simple people are not idiots. The only real Conservative influence on our council’s finances is the massive hike in councillor’s allowances - supported by the Tories. I repeat that the only political party to have voted against the increase was the Liberal Democrats.

No matter how much bleating Richard Farnell does, he will always have to answer the question about his own pay rise.

He raised councillors’ pay 20 years ago when he was last leader of the council. A leopard doesn’t change his spots and Richard Farnell has proved this. By the greedy, self-serving action of Labour and Conservative councillors, Rochdale Council has proved itself neither fair or credible. They have lost any argument by virtue of their very own money grabbing.

It gives me no pleasure to say this but Farnell, Brett, Dearnley, etc. have lost any moral authority to make any tough decisions. This is a dead council walking and no amount of taxpayerfunded press releases or photoshoots will change that. Dave Hennigan Rochdale Liberal Democrats