The Fib Dems have some explaining to do.

What goes around comes around.

Looks like it is pay back time for those who gave so generaously to party funds in their time of need.

   Could someone remind Rochdale council that they work us, not us work for them!

Unelected bodies ruling our lives (RDA) and elected bodies (RMBC) taking no notice of the people that they are supposed to represent. We all agree that Rochdale needs to be sorted out but there is a lot more things that need to be sorted out before new offices for our councillors and there staff. Aren’t these the same people that told us thirty years ago that the Black Box was an investment for Rochdale's future? Well has anyone asked if it has been paid for yet? These are also the same people that are telling us that 'It will be cheaper' to build new than maintain what they currently have, well how can that work? Come on!

   Quote..Donald Forrester, the head of highways, said: "We’re on the case.(quote)

God help us with you lot on the case Donald.

   Are these people serious? First they want to spend over £10 million to move the bus station 50 metres. All so the useless Metrolink from Oldham might come down Drake Street. Then they realise that car parking will be lost. What is their solution? To put a car park on Entwistle Road – even further away from existing shops. Genius. It is a good job Rochdale Council and the RDA don’t own a brewery - because they couldn’t organise a ‘social function’ at one!

   Principles of sustainable planning aim to reduce commuting journeys and greenhouse gas emissions. Rochdale Borough encompasses Middleton and Heywood. To read that devolved council offices throughout the Borough are to be sold off does not square with local democracy. To demolish perfectly good offices and pour thousands of tonnes of concrete for a new £70 million office in Central Rochdale is unsustainable in several ways- This will create more and longer commuting journeys. Imagine how crowded the Town centre Roads will be with 2500 council office workers arriving at “Yelloway House”? With the loss of the bus station car park where are over 1000 additional cars going to park? Yet another mad scheme, funded with our tax money with no proper consultation, decided by overpaid, unaccountable and poorly performing senior mandarins.

   There should be serious concern in the way Rochdale council disposes of its buildings and land. The pages of the Rochdale Observer have witnessed the strange manner in which a local developer was able to get planning permission in a very controversial way at Moorgate Avenue, Bamford. The same developer was able to secure planning permission for Oakenrod School. In a joint application with Rochdale Council, the plans were passed to demolish this Edwardian gem. Oddly this was against the recommendation of Rochdale Council. How bizarre. What sort of organisation applies for planning permission but also objects to it?

Was the reason because senior officers at Rochdale Council were in a rush to do a deal with a private developer? Does this developer happen to own some land close to where Rochdale Council want to build Yelloway House- their new £70 million office development that has just been announced in today’s Observer?

Part of this new deal for Rochdale Council is to dispose of dozens of its properties through the Borough?

How accountable will this be?

Why are tens of millions of pounds of council assets to be sold during a property slump?

There needs to be a thorough public investigation of the way Rochdale Council has sold, and intends to sell its assets off. After all it is our money. The investigation must start with a simple list of council property assets that have been sold off in the last 10 years, cross referenced with any local developers that have clear links with local politicians and council officers.

If nothing is wrong then there is nothing to hide.

   A few years ago many wondered why Cllr Brett was so eager to rush through the sell out of Rochdale Council services to the private finance consortium Agilisys / Mouchel Parkman. There was suspicion of a deal that committed over £200 million of our council tax money for the next decade or so. This suspicion has turned into utter disgust. In my opinion, the so-called regeneration of Rochdale Town centre could be the biggest rip-off ever to befall our town.

Here is why…

Firstly, we have been bombarded with PR drivel from Rochdale Council and the RDA giving the impression that the public have been fully consulted. This has been a sham. Today’s Observer gives us another clue in the wholesale deceit.

Yelloway House. The contracts for this project were drafted before the public consultation. RMBC and RDA made little mention of it. Public attention was distracted with talk of new shopping centres and iconic monuments.

The decision to demolish major council offices such as the Black Box and Telegraph House was made many months ago. The Electric House was demolished over a year ago. Now it is made public that more civic silver is to be sold off in order to build a mega-office on the former Yelloway coach site - otherwise known as the floodplain next to the fragrant River Roch.

Who benefits from this major sweep of the Monopoly board? Surely the Council and GMPTE if their buildings are demolished and the sites sold to developers as a clean slate £250 million project? Not really, as the world of civic accountancy is more complicated than that. The capital reserves that are accrued get spent. We won’t see our council tax bills reduce.

In fact, it all gets worse. In the style of numpty lottery winners, our council is to go on a shopping spree. Why are they spending £70 million for new offices in a town that has ample office space at a time of commercial property recession?

Who really runs Rochdale? It isn’t the elected representatives. They come and go. The main people are the senior officers- that is why people like the Chief Executive and department heads get paid so much. But there are also new kids on the block too. These are the shadowy figures from the private finance and local authority management industry.

So there we have it. Our town centre will probably be owned by overseas property investment trusts. Hundreds of millions of our money is processed by a private company running our council services. Hundreds of millions will go to civil engineering companies on demolition and property projects we don’t really need. Our overpriced car parks remain owned or managed by private companies. Too many senior council officers, consultants and agency directors are each being paid over a hundred thousand pounds a year.

Who ultimately pays for this greed and mismanagement?

We do.