WHAT is happening at St Neots Town Council?

Within days of the newly-elected, 100 per cent Conservative town council taking office – we won’t count the Independent – the Priory Centre manager leaves and the town clerk goes sick.

Now the question is whether the Priory Centre manager left or was sacked. And did the town council pay him compensation? Is the town clerk still on sick leave and, as we have an acting town clerk, we taxpayers must be paying two sets of salaries. Or has the council sacked her and paid her compensation to leave?

We just don’t know. So much for the Tories’ election promise of being transparent.

First we find that the council planning committee turned down a planning application for a row of shops at Love’s Farm – a much-needed facility for the disabled and those without a car: it’s a long walk into town or to Tesco.

Now we find they have refused a planning application for the long-awaited cinema, capitulating to the small number of residents from East Street who, despite knowing for at least four years that a cinema was to be built on the site, waited for a change of council before voicing their objections.

I just hope that Huntingdonshire District Council’s planning department sees sense and gives the go-ahead for the cinema.

If Turnstone Estates decide to walk away from the project, the taxpayers of the town could find ourselves facing a bill of several hundred thousand pounds for compensation for time and money wasted because the town council changed its mind. Mr Rowley will probably request that the council return his �1million donation.

This could lead to the site being sold by HDC and planning permission being given to build yet more houses in our town centre, as is the case with the handyman shop.

Mind you, a block of affordable one-bedroom social housing flats would solve the problem of our young people who would like a place of their own but can’t afford to rent or buy private accommodation.

B MORRIS

Mallard Lane

St Neots