I WAS very pleased to read Patricia Hodgkinson's letter in the Review (July 8, 2011) in which she quite rightly points out the great potential of the town of Lydney, with an excellent point concerning the need for a town square. If only this could all be really achieved.

Sadly, the councils, town and district are, in my opinion, not really interested in improving the town, but in fact lean heavily in the opposite direction.

Take the town council, for instance. This past year or so has been a disaster, resulting in the virtual bankruptcy of the town due to contributions to a "retiring" town clerk's pension fund.

How the council created this mess has not been clarified, or responsibility identified, despite calls for an investigation.

The resulting financial penalty to the taxpayers of this area was a 26 per cent increase in the town's precept in the council tax, so there will certainly be no money in the pot to pay for Patricia Hodgkinson's great proposals.

With regard to the district council, they certainly have no interest in the betterment of Lydney, despite all their fancy job titles and so-called development plans, their main interest is in the building of 1,200 new homes in Lydney which will result in a very nice income of around £2 million in council taxes.

None of this money appears to be intended to be used for improvements to Lydney. More likely it would be used to help fill the huge black hole in employees' pension pots, as around 30 per cent of council tax income is being wasted on trying to overcome this deficit. 

The district council would also dearly love to install car parking charges, which would bring in over £100,000 into their coffers.

These two actions would lead to a deterioration of the town centre, creating much greater traffic problems, and discouraging people to park in the town and put good use to our valuable local businesses.

I am with you all the way, Patricia, but I bet you won't get a single squeak from either of the councils.

– Ralph Perry, Lydney.