WHAT an interesting letter from Cumbria county councillor Patricia Bell about the public consultation over the council’s budget plans for the coming financial year (Letters, Tuesday January 19).

There is only one reason for a “public” consultation and that’s to say, when it all goes wrong, “well, we gave you the chance to have your say and we gave you what you said you wanted.” But they have given us a consultation with only 10 per cent of the information on offer.

The councillors are the ones who are supposed to have their collective fingers on the pulse but they aren’t interested in saving services that are really needed, like the emergency services, social services, mental health services for children and adults alike and a myriad of other much needed services, which is why they continue to waste our money on projects that, in the current economic climate aren’t a necessity.

A recent freedom of information request shows that Barrow Borough Council spent between April 2015 and September 2015 £29,782.18 on... hanging baskets and flower troughs!

And that’s just Barrow, extrapolate that throughout Cumbria and the county or local councils are probably spending well over a million pounds on hanging baskets and so on.

Sure, they look nice but WE can’t afford it.

Here are just a few “outside of the box” ideas for them to contemplate.

They could half the width of white lines and yellow lines on our roads saving US half the cost of the paint.

On well-lit roads they could switch every other light off with very little impact on visibility with big savings for US in electricity and the cost of bulbs.

There must be many more savings to be made but it seems they don’t bother with thinking outside the box and just trundle on wasting OUR money because its not their money they are wasting!

Maybe they should hire a “thinking outside the box” consultant. Oh, they’ve already done that, at vast expense, haven’t they?

KEITH DEVLIN

Almond Road

Ulverston