DO WE have some intelligent species running our council or just some melancholy bodies paid lip service to control our services to such an unacceptable degree of satisfaction.

We are told that in order for the Vale Council to make essential cash savings throughout the coming financial year and beyond that certain street lights will have to be turned off during night time periods between midnight and 6am in order to make essential services more economical.

What an absolute farce indeed. Just take a moment after midnight to witness such essential cuts to our street lighting and you will see that yet again our erstwhile council have got it wrong as per usual.

For example the street lights at the Harbour Road causeway on the approach to Barry Island are turned off between midnight and 6am, an amazing amount of money can be saved by this action but there are certain anomalies which makes this practice a complete and utter farce.

The Harbour Road council run car park and the footpath alongside the said car park toward the breakwater are fully illuminated all night with the car park especially lit up with no fewer than about 18 floodlights.

The floodlights on the new footbridge at Barry Island station are also decimating the national grid at a time when there is no one using the facility due to the fact that most people are in bed between the hours of midnight to 6am.

The even greater farce is that the civic offices and car park at Holton Road/Dock View Road are both lit up like Crystal Palace. Why do they always get everything so wrong?

This misdemeanour has been reported to councillors and the council officers responsible at least twice, to my knowledge, but seems as usual to have fallen on deaf years.

The council will have us believe that they are trying to save money, taxpayers money, yet this particular issue remains unchecked even after complaints have been duly and accordingly made to the officials concerned. But you can obviously realise the contempt of a Labour run council that wastes over £245,000 on refurbishment of the council chambers to include £58,000 on luxury leather chairs when the former chairs were in above average condition makes this situation more of a farce than one could possibly imagine.

This makes the Labour run Vale of Glamorgan Council stand out among the crowd as a real time comedy of errors which one could not make up even if one tried.

Marks out of 10 for efficiency and deliverance to the Vale taxpayer, a huge fat zero.

Barrie V Evans

Coordinator Barry First Group

Barry Voice