This explanation from Rochdale Council and the RDA has got to be their spin doctors' finest hour. I would not be surprised if a special bumper edition of the glossy brochure "Local Matters" gets printed to inform the masses how this good news demonstrates how well this town is being run.

What similar sized Greek development? A quarter of a billion pounds and only rubble to show for it? Don't tell me- the Parthenon.

So our grandees have pulled the plug to save the money of a 'costly legal challenge'. They are only costly if lost. Perhaps the real reason is that embarrasing documents would have to be disclosed to the court.

So instead we will have the 'bargain' of another £100,000 greasing the palms of the media specialists for another con-sultation.

As for the last farce, the were at least 15 million reasons why there wasn't a level playing field. Thats cash not M&S vouchers. Yet we are all supposed to blame the Greeks for this?

In all the celebratory PR comments published in happier times there was gushing praise from partner regeneration quango English Partnerships.

This weekend there was a programme giving an insight into an English Partnerships project. The consultation with the local community was astonishing. £1,000,000 was spent transforming a pleasant but tatty field into a concrete monstrosity. Headed by a 'visionary' American architect whose work fills the glossy magazines of Regeneration experts' office coffee tables, the centre piece included an 'iconic' (sound familiar) sculpture that the locals suggested looked like a crude insulting finger. The unveiling was a sight to behold, a dozen or so of the Great and the Good all suited and booted. The Housing Minister gushing all the regeneration buzzwords but... boycotted by the entire community, this project was supposed to serve. Apparently they felt "shafted" by the whole sorry saga- especially when secret plans emerged for a development of "sustainable eco houses".

A classic example of top-down patronising wasteful vain white lelephant rearing.

Sound familiar?

As for Rochdale Council/RDA project colleagues in English Partnerships... Last weekends business section of the Observer claimed the quango had a cash crisis of between £100 million and £200 million.

If the RDA and English Parterships were private companies funded wholly by shareholders and not bankrolled by our public cash, then after the farces we have seen in Rochdale- they would all be on the dole.

   Do the council and RDA's spin doctors think we are stupid? Greek test cases indeed.

I suppose it has absolutely nothing to do with what all commercial planners, financiers and the stock market are saying about all over the top "regeneration" redevelopment schemes. The market is dead, liquidity dissapeared, the horse has bolted. Thank god they hadn't got too far down the road with this mad project.

Wilson Bowden are a good firm, perhaps a little too close to the RDA but that is to be expected after 5 years of planning the Kingway site together. Their major problem is that they were bought out by Barratt -for more money that the entire group ois now worth. hence the 90% drop in share price. Now Barratt is cancelling projects everywhere- look at the Artisan social housing development at the Arkwright Mill site in Wardleworth- a flattened pile of rubble.

The real danger is that with the commercial property recession many civil engineering firms will turn to vain local authority with deep pockets (of our money) to pour concrete on daft, overpriced schemes (Metrolink,Town Centre Impact Partnership/RMBC offices, Building for Schools, Kingsway lite).

The PFI experience will be bitter. They will tie weak local authorities up with draconian contracts and drain civic cash. Those in power will retire. Many then become non-exec directors or consultants so the truth about what poor decisions were made in the past become clouded with media spin and waffle.

Let me give one small example of why Rochdale Council and the RDA are failing our town. They justify their existence with big projects rather than concentrating on fine details and the "little stuff":

Example-

Yesterday we received many visitors to our splendid Esplanade and Town Hall square. RMBC had organised a Bank Holiday car boot sale. You can tell the outsiders, they are the ones that can't believe their eyes when they see our beautiful town hall, Post Office and gardens.

They will also never return if they were one of the many that received a parking ticket that day.

Why is this an example of PFI greed, lack of joined-up thinking and lack of vision for a successful future for our town? centre?

No doubt an RMBC spin doctor with suggest that the parking rules are clear. But, that misses the point. RMBC have sold its rights to collect town centre parking to the commerical company NCP. NCP want to make a profit they don't need to care two hoots about welcoming visitors to our town.

Rochdale Council and the RDA have wasted millions on glossy brochures, "Roadshows", fancy interactive presentations and spin doctors- all with embarresingly little to show for it (huge wages and pension provisons aside).

They have missed the "little stuff"- a few 70p tickets to welcome visitors to our town centre on a Bank Holiday. Instead NCP had at least 3 traffic wardens prowling waiting to pounce. Those £20 parking tickets will cost this town dear.

A bit of free parking? Hardly revolutionary but when you see these clowns spinning us a yarn the 'greek tragedy' that has halted the £250,000,000 white elephant for a month then heaven help us all.