CONCERNED at the sale of the Lowry by Bury Council due to a shortage of funds, I recently had a look at the council's accounts on their web page.

A couple of items that stood out are quite alarming in the light of the impending sale.

One of them is the amount of arrears owed by council house tenants.

At March 31, 2006, the arrears totalled £1,354,110. Yes, that is one million, three hundred and 54 thousand pounds!

Forty-four point two per cent of this amount (£598,516) is owed by current tenants, while the remaining 55.8 per cent (£755,593) is owed by former tenants.

As a self-employed businessman I find this to be an appalling situation. A private business just could not operate with uncollected debts of this magnitude.

It could be said that the sale of the Lowry is a direct result of the council's failure to collect the amounts owed to it by council house tenants.

The other item that stood out is the sum of £535,620 paid to councillors as members' allowances'. Note allowances' and not expenses'.

Why are we, the ratepayers of the borough, paying out well over half a million pounds to councillors who choose to take the easy way out by selling off the Lowry (for half a million) rather than collect the rent arrears, especially from sitting tenants?

The issue of over half a million pounds in councillors' allowances has cropped up before on these pages.

In the past, the amount was defended by the leader of the council as being relatively nothing when compared to the whole council budget.

In my opinion, the amount paid to councillors has become a serious drain on the finances of the borough, especially when you consider that the Lowry is to be sold to raise roughly the same amount as that paid to councillors.

I suggest that the Lowry is not sold. Instead the £535,620 allocated for members' allowances should be used to make up the shortfall.

The councillors should receive their allowances only when they have earned them by ensuring collection of the same amount from the outstanding rent arrears, or any other outstanding debts buried in the accounts.

In order to protect the family silver' for future generations, maybe it is time to scrap members' allowances and replace them with true expenses' that are payable on the production of receipts, just like everyone else in business has to do.

LOWRY FAN Name and address supplied