I NEVER thought I would agree with a Tory, but on some points I have to agree with Tory Cllr Bob Allen's letter in the Bolton News, February 24 on on the budget meeting last Wednesday, about it being predictable, and Labour councillors blindly voting for more cuts — £12.5m of cuts over the next two years, on top of the £155m inflicted on the town in the previous six years.

They simply did the chief whip's bidding, no dissent was shown, and arrogance was displayed by the Labour leadership. One by one they agreed to rubber stamp more Tory cuts, as Cllr Bob Allen admitted, central government cuts to funding have gone far enough. But thus is the point where I drawn a line with Cllr Allen, it is his government which is making savage cuts to funding, and have done when in coalition with the Lib-Dems from 2010 till 2015.

The Lib-Dems are trying to rebrand themselves, but they must share some of the blame. Since 2015 we have the Tories single handedly carrying on with harmful draconian cuts, which hurt towns like Bolton much more than the Tory shires.

At the council meeting Cllr Cliff Morris announced £500,000 set aside to tackle poverty in Bolton, while at the same time he committed £2.5m for work to be done on Westhoughton town hall. I am not saying we should not preserve and restore our history, and heritage, but i find it difficult to square this round, when only £500.000 is given to tackle poverty, this is nowhere near enough when many areas of our town has almost 25 per cent% child poverty rates, and £2.5 million to restore a building, is not justifiable. Get your priorities right, and seriously take on poverty in our town, after all that should be what Labour is about, but sadly not our current Labour Council, it seems to have lost its way over the years.

Alan Johnson

Green Party

Bolton