COUNCILS all over the UK, Bolton’s included, should learn a valuable lesson about investing the people’s money in the financial market place, as we’ve seen with recent huge losses in relation to Icelandic banks and UK councils.

The monies that councils hold are made up from our contributions to provide vital services for us, they are not chips at a casino roulette table and should not be treated as such.

I’m sure that no Boltonian would have ever agreed to council monies being gambled in this way if they had known.

Furthermore, I’m also sure that no member of the council will be sacked for losing the £2 million pounds that they have lost through making this foolish, ill-informed investment.

We really should keep council monies away from anything to do with free market investment, as recent months have shown that the greed and dishonesty that keeps the financial system propped up is ill equipped to provide extra revenue for councils.

Perhaps the department that consented to council money being invested in this way should pay it all back from their over-inflated salaries — of course this will not happen and yet more of our money will be used to prop up this loss.

Steve Jones, Great Lever