READER'S LETTER: Council is out of control

It is heartening to read the letters in The News on Saturday, July 22 with the likes of Jerry Bamforth referring to city tower blocks as '˜like monster weeds in a derelict garden', Diane Jones stating that '˜shops, not casinos,' are what we need more of and Barrie Love saying the '˜rich get richer,' while reflecting on the rush to build student accommodation in and around every corner of Portsmouth.

Heartening, because this demonstrates, clearly, that Portsmouth City Council is out of control and, more importantly, out of touch with the community.

While clutching and waving around a handful of awards for spending other people’s money in some entrepreneurial guise in areas far removed from our city, PCC is allowing Portsmouth itself to become awash with uncontrolled and hideous outbreaks of high-rise buildings that they believe patch up the dilapidation and emptiness of our streets.

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In any other sector, a department such as the housing arm within PCC, would be immediately shredded for wasting huge sums of money on systems that do not work, failing to deliver projects on time and on budget, expending vast sums of taxpayers money on paying over and beyond competitiveness and, more importantly, failing to manage basic health and safety requirements of residential apartments.

There has been horrendous wasted expenditure with the cobbles installed in Commercial Road and, in terms of health and safety and general aesthetics, it is probably just as well very few people actually go there any more.

Hiding behind high-rise development, that people in the community do not want, investment in areas far removed from Portsmouth, that people do not understand and promoting far-fetched marketing propaganda on potential of millions of investment that never comes to fruition, are further demonstration that this organisation has no structure or controlled pathway.

It is chillingly scary that the housing department, heavily involved in all building practice since the untimely demise of asset management, are also in control of our schools and community buildings because, as Jerry Bamforth eloquently states, ‘the derelict garden’ will be a very, very long time before clear and transparent water and pleasant bloom are witnessed again.

Dean Kimber

North Shore, Hayling Island