I WAS interested to read councillor Bowden’s comments regarding the 2020 budget and other financial subjects (Warrington Guardian, February 27).

Surprisingly, in view of the fact that the council tax is rising by 3.98 per cent, no mention was made of the council’s debt which is due to reach £1.6billion fairly soon.

Some of the items involved in the debt are puzzling and some very worrying.

The approximately £30m invested in the Redwood Bank, an organisation which lost nearly £4 million in its first year, is a concern in view of number of these start-up banks which fail.

In addition there are outgoings of £211m for Birchwood Park, £6.13m for the Matalan site and a total of £5.85m for two sports sites.

Spending in the year 2018/19 was more than £329m, a figure which was 237 per cent of its spending power.

Comments in the press accuse Warrington and another council of spending large sums to avoid paying tax.

Would it not have been cheaper to pay the tax? Also, a rider to the budget details was the comment that some 50 jobs will be at risk.

Will any of those jobs be among the council hierarchy with their £100,000-plus salaries?

I will not hold my breath on that.

It appears the Lib Dems tabled an amendment which was labelled by Cllr Bowden as ‘entirely flawed’.

Cllr Bowden also stated that ‘austerity was still with us’. In view of a £1.6bn debt Mr Bowden’s remark about ‘austerity’ has a ring of truth about it.

ALLEN RIX Fearnhead