IT NEVER fails to amaze me how Bolton Council can find money for unimportant things like the Moran painting and now the Octagon Theatre. These two combined have cost approximately £250,000.

This comes at a time when the council is thinking of closing some schools, restricting school clothing grants, and saying that they can't afford to pay teachers pay increases.

Well I would like to ask Bolton Council why they do not redirect the money that they seem to find for the minority of people who will use these facilities, to the majority who need help with school clothes, or to fund schools and pay teachers wage increases!

I hope that people show what they think of how their money is being spent when they go to the polls in May.

If the Octagon is not pulling in the crowds for their shows, then obviously no one wants to see them, so why don't they have concerts there like they once did. Stars like Mike Harding used to pull the crowds in, so why can't they do this again, this would enable them to fund themselves otherwise they will need more money in a few months.

The way this has been done reminds me of the millions that has been given to the opera houses in London from the lottery, which many Labour MPs complained about. I don't object to having these institutions, but I do think they should learn to fund themselves, and not rely on funding from people who never use them.

There would be an outcry if money had been used to keep the former Cannon Cinema open in the town centre, but it was probably there a lot longer than the Octagon and used more.

S M Rock

Ainsworth Avenue, Horwich

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.