I was born and grew-up in Radcliffe. I moved away when I was eighteen, and now eighteen years later I am again a resident.

There are many great things about Radcliffe, but I am also deeply saddened about many negative changes in the town, and if the people of Radcliffe do not stand up and complain the councillors will continue to rob this town of everything.

When I left Radcliffe in 1997, we had two secondary schools, now we have zero.

We had a wonderful, vibrant market, now despite an expensive facelift, the majority of the stalls stand vacant. Why do the councillors not offer cheap rents that would encourage more business to the town? The Radcliffe Times building stands empty and decaying and now when I read the paper there is actually very little in it that actually pertains to Radcliffe.

The Civic Hall which was one of the most important meeting places for our community has been demolished. We are promised a new building, but call me a cynic, I doubt that this new complex will be built before I am receiving my pension.

I hope I am wrong on this, but the new Civic Hall should have been completed before the demolition of the old building so that we still had a large community hall in the heart of the town.

We had an amazing swimming pool and the new 'temporary' pool is atrocious. I go to the pool twice a week for aqua aerobics and we do not even have enough space in the changing room for all of the women, so some of us have to use the male changing room and the men have to use the gym facilities.

The pool has no baby pool and there are already leaks in the roof and to get to the changing rooms we all have to traipse through the pool area causing unacceptable dirt at the side of the pool.

Then there is the new bus station. Yes, it is aesthetically pleasing, but it is simply not fit for purpose.

The seating is not suitable for the demographic of the town.The majority of the users of the station are elderly who are unable to lean on the ridiculous seating.

The benches in the plaza can only be used when it is not raining, and in Radcliffe it rains a lot. Radcliffe always gets Bury's leftovers.

I attended the last council meeting in Radcliffe because I wanted to raise some of these concerns and it was a farce.

We had to sit in a circle and we had to all say something good about Radcliffe. Yes, I know there are good things about Radcliffe, and I praised our wonderful library.

However, when I eventually raised the issue of the seating in the bus station I was dismissed by two of the councillors who were in my group. One of them actually ‘tutted’ at me when I raised my concern.

I was told that the seating was not a proper seat so as to prevent the homeless from sleeping on them! I pointed out that Bury bus station has adequate seating and I was told that Bury is a 'central hub' so does that mean that the residents of Radcliffe are less important?

The answers that the councillors gave me were grossly inadequate. I was told it was a health and safety issue, but there are other bus stops in Radcliffe that have normal benches, why is that not a health and safety issue?

I was spoken to and dismissed as if I were stupid. I am not stupid. The people of Radcliffe are not stupid and we deserve better.

I have contacted TFGM but they have informed me that there are inadequate funds in the budget for new seating.

I love this town and I am writing this letter as an invite to the strong people of Radcliffe to stand up and tell our councillors that we want and deserve better.

What is the point of building new houses if the infrastructure of the town is decimated?

What do the councillors get paid for if not to defend Radcliffe? They should pay back their wages if they do not do an adequate job.

So, people of Radcliffe, write to your councillors and complain because otherwise they will carry on destroying our wonderful town.

Miss D.C.Murphy

Farrringdon Drive

Radcliffe