AT LAST WE APPEAR TO BE GETTING SOMEWHERE

16 July 2005

Council leader Chris Holley admits they've got it wrong over the Slip Bridge but what he seems unable to grasp is that it was no surprise to the rest of us. Could it be that this confession was down to the fact that his former agent and longstanding Lib Dem colleague Gary Perkins voiced his concerns? Added to this is the fact that I understand Mr Perkins is a chartered surveyor and someone who couldn't be hoodwinked into a course of action that he knew to be professionally inappropriate.

What exactly did they get wrong? After all, it was in the Lib Dem Election Focus for Uplands Ward that they promised to reinstate the bridge, so I ask was it the 455-vote (5.3 per cent) majority who wanted the bridge refurbished and reinstated (not the two per cent that Councillor Holley insisted on Swansea Sound) that they seem unable to accept ? Or was it the £35,000 wasted on a consultation exercise that was ignored? Or could it be the fact that this administration, which purports to be open and fair, took the decision to relocate the bridge behind closed doors?

By the way, what's happened to the £350,000 put aside by the previous administration for the reinstatement of the bridge? No-one's mentioned that.

Add all these facts to the U-turn over the leisure centre and the parking fees fiasco and what have you got? More Holley's Follies.Now that Councillor Holley has admitted his mistake, I ask who is going to pay for it?

I, and presumably the majority of the people who voted in the consultation exercise would, I'm sure, agree it is unfair that the people of Swansea pick up the tab; so Councillor Holley, you botched it up, you cough up. Maybe in the future we won't have these rash decisions being made one day and unmade the next.

The bridge in its new location isn't even parallel with the promenade on which it sits. Could this be because it was positioned under cover of darkness?The local councillors and especially Councillor Holley were conspicuous by their absence.

I can assure you that this matter will not be allowed to end with this letter. After all, there is still the question of the abutments and we have it on good authority there are already vultures circling and names have been mentioned of interested parties who wish to lay claim to them.

Penny Matthews
Eileen Road,
Penlan, Swansea