Letter: More proof council's actions are merely driven by finance
Announcing Shropshire Council's plan to sell off 24 smallholdings and over 1,000 acres of additional land, council leader Malcolm Pate, stated: "We are not in the business of providing smallholdings for starter farmers. As far as we are concerned, this would just be a financial transaction."
Considering that the major part of Shropshire is agricultural, it might be that Shropshire Council could provide a valuable service for budding farmers, by enabling them to start small and then move on to greater things in the future, to the general benefit of the county.
However, the farming community will know better than I do if that is a valid aim.
But, as a mere taxpayer, I have the impression that over the past seven years, everything that Shropshire Council has done has been viewed by the council majority as ". . . just a financial transaction", with little concern for the priorities and needs of the communities the council is supposed to serve.
Indeed, the way in which "financial transactions" have been dealt with over that period, and the apparent preference for boosting benefits for some councillors and senior staff, while steadily destroying community services and the sharp-end staff who provided them, indicates that, come 2017, Shropshire Council will be nothing but a hollow shell, talking to itself about itself.
But have no fear, dear fellow taxpayers, I am sure that the majority of councillors will find other ways of squeezing ever more money out of us, with no improvement in accountability, while potholes are deeper and wider, care homes fester, education becomes unintelligible and our youth goes to hell in a handcart.
Oh death, where is thy sting?
Malcolm MacIntyre-Read, Much Wenlock
