BOLTON Green Party, fully supports The Bolton News, and other Greater Manchester publications, campaigning to get a fair deal for Greater Manchester devolution from the Conservative government.
It is feared that the government will not offer enough cash, as the report in the Bolton News suggested Tuesday, October 6.
What is striking in the report is that councillor Cliff Morris now fears that the cash settlement from George Osborne, may not be enough and that it will lead to cuts, and they will be left to carry them out, due to a monetary shortfall.
But Cllr Morris must have been aware of this possibility when he and another nine council leaders, all but one Labour, signed up to the deal last year in front of a smiling Osborne.
Why did he not express those concerns then, some of us at the time said it may be a cunning plan to get authorities to administer Tory cuts now it seems it may be a real possibility.
We do hope that the campaign is successful in getting more funding from central Government.
But the whole question of Devo Manc, and a elected Mayor, we now have a interim Mayor in the guise of Tony Lloyd, who was appointed, not elected. confirms peoples suspicions. The big question is who asked the people of Greater Manchester including Bolton, whether they wanted devolution, and indeed a Mayor, local democracy has been torn to shreds, over this whole sorry issue, and peoples worse fears could now become a reality.
Alan Johnson
Bolton Green Party
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