OVER the past few years, the council has spent many thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money on neighbourhood group meetings, held, we are told, so that residents can "have their say" on issues which concern and affect them.

I find this difficult to reconcile with the article (Advertiser, July 2) which states that the council is going to put a skateboard rink and shelters for youths in Morton Stanley Park.

Why has there been no opportunity to discuss this?

Why have our elected councillors allowed this to go forward without calling a public meeting to acquaint residents and park users with their intentions?

Is this another example of democracy Redditch-style, which is that the council pays lip service to public consultation and then goes ahead with what it intended to do?

The issue here, in my opinion, is not whether there should be a skateboard rink and something to attract youths to the park, although one does wonder when they have destroyed every picnic bench, several seats, burnt waste bins and vandalised the toilets so that they are now kept locked, which is not terribly helpful.

The issue is that the council officers and local councillors should conceive such a scheme in a park for which the council are only trustees and announce they are pushing it through with no public consultation to which they are always paying lip service.

It is arrogance beyond belief.

Mrs M Morley

Tennyson Road

Headless Cross