Public Buildings

Dear Editor,


I was contacted by your Alsager Reporter, Mel,  earlier this week regarding the cost and usage of our publicly owned buildings.


Right now, maintaining state-owned buildings is costing the nation tens of billions a year. With our national debt expanding at an unprecedented peacetime rate, we’ve clearly passed the point where current tax revenues can cover the bill. Our brilliant collective solution? Just pass the buck to our children and grandchildren. 


Alsager is also possibly suffering from a case of "Underutilised Public Building Syndrome." We have four of them within half a mile of Bank Corner alone, not to mention the Collerick  Pavilion and the Leisure Centre in Alsager West.


If Andy Burnham’s desire for greater devolution gains traction, Cheshire East Council will almost certainly try to pass all building running costs over to Alsager Town Council so that—hey presto!—your Town Council precept could go up again.  It’s the classic "Bread and Circuses" routine, just with socialised leisure costs. 


We desperately need a review of local buildings and their actual footfall, before hard-pressed local families are forced to subsidise underused assets for the next few decades. We could start this review with a simple question: how many Alsager people actually borrow books from the library on a regular basis? Are Council Tax payers funding a lovely, brick-and-mortar white elephant? Between Amazon, eBay, Kindle, the Alsager Book Emporium, and the endless abyss of the internet, reading material isn't exactly scarce these days.


Your reporter also asked about the social and educational groups that meet using publicly owned or subsidised spaces. While well-intentioned, it really shouldn't be the state’s job to play landlord for "worthy" groups. The Scouts and Guides manage just fine on their own steam, so why should the council pick and choose winners?


Let’s trim the Council Tax for everyone instead. If we leave that money in residents' pockets rather than handing it over to inefficient bureaucratic machinery, we might just see a genuine, self-funded flowering of new local groups.


Yours,

Andy Large

Alsager West




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