I was not surprised to learn of the large deficit incurred by Keighley Town Council of about £162,000 whilst on holiday abroad – ‘Shock’ over civic centre £160K deficit (Keighley News, May 16).

When the council voted to buy the old police station, I warned at the time this was an unacceptable gamble with ratepayers’ money, and went on to say in letters to this newspaper, branded as negative by some councillors, that the bill would soon be dropping on the ratepayers’ doormats.

This council should now accept its majority decision to purchase this building was wrong. The mere fact it would be self-financing was rubbish and made little sense. The way forward? Get the building on the market asap. To say the Civic Centre is here to stay is crazy and unfair to the ratepayer – £74,000 deficit in February and now, in a few weeks, it has gone up to £162,000, plus the running costs and loan repayments on top, are unsustainable.

In the meantime, reduce council spending to the bare minimum, cancel funding to projects outside our parish, cancel expensive pop concerts and reduce committee budgets by half.

The cost of a town mayor should also receive attention.

Councillor Ron Beale Ridgemount Road.

Riddlesden