Government cuts and less EU funds a double whammy - Yorkshire Post Letters

From: Nick Hudson, Harrogate.
Scarborough.Scarborough.
Scarborough.

Having read the item “resort’s big spending on consultants”, in last weekend’s Yorkshire Post, I fear my comments concerning it might seem cynical.

Having cut 40 per cent-plus from the central government grant to local authorities over the last 10 or so years, it would seem the new conduit for this government’s beneficence is via “the grant” that comes with parasitic food chain attached.

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Old pals of the Tory government, Price Waterhouse and Coopers et al, seem to be the go-to consultants to access the funds for which they charge a fat fee which is paid for either by local ratepayers’ money or from the grant itself.

This exercise seems to be broadly similar to the “transforming Northern cities fund” designed to promote sustainable transport

initiatives.

Harrogate, Selby and Skipton are to be recipients of grants for “Station Gateway projects”.

I know that considerable concerns and protests have been raised at the wisdom of the project as it manifests itself in Harrogate. However it seems it’s a case of use it or lose it.

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In a week that has seen the cancellation of the Northern leg of HS2 and the scaling down of the Trans-Pennine project.

It seems that our government is giving with one hand and taking away with the other.

What’s new!

Levelling up continues apace, especially as the development funds given to regions by central government are a very small fraction of the EU funds they are designed to replace.

It’s all going very well.

From: Malcolm Parkin, Gamekeepers Road, Kinnesswood, Kinross.

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Your article (PM shows contempt for the North, November 16 ) reminds me of the lack of understanding of what lies north of Watford that

afflicts many Home Counties residents. Many years ago, while working in Berkshire, I attended a posh cocktail party.

An elegant lady, who perhaps detected my slight Scots accent, asked me where I came from.

I told her Edinburgh. “Really, is that local?” she asked.

“No,” I said, “it is the capital of Scotland.”

“Then I must compliment you on your excellent English. I would never have guessed that you were a foreigner,” she replied.

That says it all!

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