WITH reference to recent articles on a Greater Manchester city region, I have tried to fathom out the consequences of Bolton joining in this project (which it already has) but it's like wading through a swamp of gobbledegook.

What is clear, however, is that the power is not being devolved from the Government downwards. It is being devolved from Bolton Council upwards.

The executive board of this city region would consist of the 10 leaders of the 10 borough councils in Greater Manchester.

They would “oversee” a collection of commissions with the task of developing plans and taking action in different aspects of the devolved powers.

It is another attempt to disenfranchise the local electors following the demise of Greater Manchester Council and the failure of John Prescott to impose regional assemblies.

The sop to local democracy is that the leaders will be accountable to their local electors through Local Council Scrutiny Committees.

This is on top of the new leader and cabinet style of governance which Bolton Council has adopted, and will come into effect after May 6, concentrating power into the hands of the leader alone.

More and more decision making is being moved further away from the people who we elect. Power is going into the hands of fewer elected representatives and more unelected commissars.

Doubtless, there will be more quangos, commissions and jobs for perhaps unelected boys on new gravy trains.

Politicians talking about opt-outs in five years is no use in a plan they’ve only just signed up to. The damage will have been done by then.

In the meantime, whilst these mini-empires are being built, our borough infrastructure is falling apart.

I thought we were skint. Council jobs being slashed, we can not have a new courthouse, a new health centre, decent road surfaces or bins that are emptied. Shops are boarded-up and empty and the whole borough is decorated with litter and dog dirt.

How much money has been spent on this arrogant, self-serving nonsense?

If I, and I suspect many others, were the elected mayor, I would have nothing to do with this or the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities, the Local Government Association or any other parasitic organisation sucking the money out of the pockets of council tax payers for little return. I would plough the money back into basic local infrastructure and services.

I know we can not go back to the halcyon days where the town clerk was the town clerk, not a chief executive, and when the watch committee’s writ ran large but we can revive the circumstances where residents are proud to be Boltonians.

We should revive a system in which councillors do not have to fight the many protocols, best practices and procedures just to get the simplest thing done.

Paul Richardson Ripon Close Little Lever