Astonished at waste of public money by Darlington council

Going down the list of cuts that were listed in The Northern Echo (February 5) I am astonished at some wasteful items. Support groups, senior managers, a full time union official, drug alcohol and tobacco commissioning teams, prevention of obesity and many other quangos in the efficiency, leisure and economy sections still exist.

And we all know that if the wasteful items to be cut didn’t exist then there wouldn’t be anything classed as “cuts” but the scenario can be used in a political sense to discredit the government.

The decision on closing the public library and selling off the covered market would seem to have been made without any thought of the town’s image or the needs of the public. Years ago the town was an attractive place for tourists with the Victorian High Row that was wrecked and replaced with the decaying façade that we have now.

And why do we need the top hierarchy on a salary costing us £186,000 per year and the expense of 51 councillors to manage a town of only 100,000 residents? If DBC is providing a lesser amount of services then we don’t need such a large squad of councillors many of them doing very little and not providing any value for money.

On top of that is the hiring of expensive “consultants” to do the work that we also pay the incompetent management to do.

The Canadian non-political town management system has four fulltime councillors and a mayor and is much more financially efficient and competent than our system.

Interest on debts incurred by our council is costing us about five per cent of our council tax each year.

Are we going to have a public meeting on the subject? I think not after the truths and refusals that came out at the last meeting.

From the outside of the town hall it would appear that DBC is out of touch with the public and is just a gravy train.

All of that takes preference over the common sense management of the town and the important needs of the residents.

Mr L Hume, Darlington