Got something to say. Let us know the views on the topics of the day by emailing your letters to sthelens.reporter@lancspublications.co.uk. Alternatively, you can write to Neighbourhood Views, Bank House, Claughton Street, St Helens, WA10 1RL. Don't forget to leave your name, address and daytime contact number.
With people in the private sector losing their jobs daily due to the recession and no doubt council taxes to raise in April yet again, our political leaders could ease these people's burden by reducing council tax and also improve public services.
A
ccording to the figures from the department for communities and local government, a quarter of all council tax is going to meet the soaring cost of the gold-plated pensions of town hall workers while those in the private sector face an erosion of their pensions.
This adds to the perception of the widening gulf between the public and private sector at a time when many taxpayers are having to postpone their retirement or have seen their own pension pots drastically reduced why should they keep paying ever higher council tax only to see a quarter of it go directly to gold-plated public sector pensions instead of improved public services.
Local taxpayers simply cannot afford to foot an ever-growing bill at a time when some private sector workers face having to work until 68 before they get their pension, it is just not sustainable or fair.
Surely the time has come for public sector workers to fund their own pensions instead of being subsidised by the taxpayer. When will this government face the truth that the increasing pay and pension gap between the public and private sectors can no longer be sustained or tolerated.
It has also emerged that state workers earn an average of £62 a week more than their private sector counterparts. Yet not one party leader promises to take a knife to the ever-growing number of public sector jobs feeding off the productive economy.
Of course, it is easy to see why not. Gordon Brown has deliberately expanded the public payroll to create a client electorate meanwhile the opposition dare not risk alienating the one-in-five voters now employed by the state.
But somebody will have to find the courage to make the radical cuts that will help restore Britain to full economic health.
B Ackers,
Green Leach Lane,
Haresfinch.
My sister recently came to visit me (I live at the back of the town hall) and got a parking ticket on the morning of her departure. I think it's ridiculous that parking tickets are given out so early in the morning and what can be done when people have visitors in the area?
It isn't considered safe to park a decent car far from where you are staying. So, I would like St Helens Council to consider some sort of visitor permit for short-stay visitors.
My sister's visit turned out to be a very costly affair.
Marianne Caldeirn,
Hardshaw Street,
St Helens.
I have been a patient in Whiston Hospital and very special people looked after me.
Everyday I received excellent care. Nothing was too much trouble, nothing a trial. Each and every task, done with a smile.
Medical problems, often complex. To these excellent folk, a natural reflex. No need to worry about your family. They're in the safest of hands.
On every ward, staff are renowned. No better treatment can ever be found. So friends never worry and never fear. You'll be much better when you leave here.
Wilf Sephton,
Finney Grove,
Haydock.
What a superb call to arms by our local mayor (St Helens Reporter, February 4), a pity then that he must be visiting a different town from the one I live in.
Why do I say this, let me explain. St Helens was once the mighty glass town to be proud of, but not any more. Here is a town in its death throes, a town with no money to spend on it in any useful way at all, (mind you we are getting a big head at an old pit to look at). A town that has cut itself off from its people.
Look at it this way, why on earth would you want to invest here. We build a retail park to late, we can't even sort out a stadium for a rugby team.
Name and address supplied.
