HAS Cllr David Greenhalgh completely lost the plot?

I refer to the article in The Bolton News “Tory fury as Labour Party hires council venue for political fundraiser”.

The original scurrilous accusation that Cllr Greenhalgh made to The Bolton News was that the “council would be picking up the bill” for a private function at the Albert Halls within the town hall.

He made this baseless claim after listening to gossipers in both his and the UKIP groups.

One must question the mind-set of a person who takes a story to The Bolton News without any facts to back it up, based entirely on tittle tattle.

Once Cllr Greenhalgh had been told by the borough solicitor that his accusations were incorrect, and that the Labour Party is paying the same room hire rates as any other individual or organisation, he quickly dropped his story.

However, presumably to save face, he then decided that the issue for him was that the Labour Party had hired a function room within the town hall in the first place, and irrationally claimed that this was in some way wrong.

Bolton Town hall has recently undergone a major refurbishment for the express purpose of attracting additional functions, parties, conferences, etc, to the excellent facilities that are available.

In choosing to hire out a room at the Albert Halls, rather than any number of other venues, Bolton Labour Party is supporting the people of Bolton by putting money directly into the Albert Halls accounts.

This is not something that the local Labour Party should be criticised for, but something that we should be applauded for!

It really is a shame that the leader of the local Tories has effectively ruled out the possibility of Conservative functions also being held at the town hall, thus depriving the council of possible additional income.

However, I can assure him that Labour will continue to support our town hall finances by using town hall venues whenever possible.

The town hall has some excellent facilities to offer, and so I would hope that this rather silly Tory own goal does not deter individuals and organisations from considering using this venue for future events.

Cllr Nick Peel