ONCE again we are indebted to Richard Page for a thoughtful insight into the workings of our borough council.

In answer to the question of why Macclesfield has been ignoring the law relating to planning obligations (section 106 agreements), he says they made a 'mistake.'

Prisons are full of lawbreakers who insist they did nothing wrong, but just made a mistake, and I remember a former MP who said much the same before being thrown out of office.

It is not bizarre, as Mr Page says it is, for local people to wonder what on earth the council is up to.

They have been giving Knutsford Guardian reporters the run-around on the subject for eight months, and are still not meeting their legal requirements to keep a list of planning obligations in the planning register, which must be available for public inspection.

The Government website clearly sets out the relevant Acts of Parliament, and includes the DoE Circular 1/97, which covers the subject of planning obligations in great detail, and stresses the importance of public scrutiny where sums of money are paid by developers in return for planning approval. It is perhaps not bizarre for the council spokesman to say 'we are slightly ahead of everyone else,' but it is in fact that nearby councils, including Vale Royal and Warrington, all say they comply with the laws, and are pleased to rattle off details of the amounts involved on request. It is possibly not bizarre for Mr Page to tell anyone who questions the behaviour of Macclesfield that they should become councillors before voicing their concerns, but it is a fact that not one of Knutsford's borough councillors has bothered to repeated requests for information about local planning obligations.

The Royal George Hotel used to be internationally renowned as the eye-catching centrepiece of King Street.

Since being sold to a developer, it has become a derelict, decaying eyesore, and a blot on the character of the whole town. Mr Page has a ready reason for this. It is because we now have developers who are creating sympathetic buildings, he says.

Now that is bizarre.

LAURIE BURTON

Elizabeth Gaskell Court