I HAVE just read a very interesting letter from Richard A Jacob on March 22 issue, the headline being “when our city finances started to go sour.”

Although living just outside the city I was born in Southampton and follow the news through your paper.

Southampton was a lovely city, something for everyone of all ages, with excellent shopping facilities, whether Shirley, Portswood, Bitterne, Woolston etc.

Bit by bit we seem to have lost all the “pleasures” from the bird aviary, youth clubs, skating rink (replacement promised within six months) by the then council leader Alan Whitehead now the Test MP and more before them and since.

Of course there is bingo or night clubs and similar.

We keep reading about cut backs restricting the council and then we read about government grants – just how many grants have there been?

I read of the maximum council tax increases and the closure of a respite centre in Kentish Road, and wasn’t the one in Lower Brownhill Road also closed?

Southampton is of course a university town and many blocks of flats have been built, however, I understand students do not pay council tax.

As Richard A Jacob ended his letter, this cannot be blamed on the Tory government cuts? And I end my letter likewise.

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