Commercial property investment suddenly seems risky. Does this have implications for Newbury ?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-36708844
Looks like this is definetly something of a hot potatoe nationally - lets hope locally we have no commitments that may bring financially embarrassing consequences ?
On a rare sojourn past the Fith Road playing fields today I was shocked to see the field overgrown and starting to look semi abandoned. Hopefully this is not a start of a process to declare the field redundant and schedule it for development ? Hint - cut the grass and people will use it.
I've given up trying to work out what our local Councillors are doing. Doubtless the lack of maintenance will be blamed on the austerity measures yet we seem to be flush enough to install a water game in Victoria Park. How long before lack of maintenance sinks that!
Blaming such things on austerity is an easy but lazy excuse for them, if indeed that is the reason they give. West Berkshire council and the Town council have far to much in the way of sunk costs and for all their talk of austerity have not tackled these at all. Time for the gilded palaces to be dimantled methinks and the money saved spent on services.
If this latest debacle has shown anything it's the dire state of local government round here. Apparently it takes 60 plus Councillors to run WBC which by any measure now has far less to do. On top of that there are many Parish or if they have ideas above their station, Town Councils with even more Councillors and staff. Where else would this lot survive? No wonder both parties round here don't even consider change!
They will of course not vote themselves out and will actively stifle opposition if it emerges, even within their own ranks. With senior officrs and politicians failing to grasp the nettle we must hope that central government grasps the nettle and forces change through by merging authorities and forcing savings through.