I'M writing this with a knot in my stomach, as it really annoys me to hear that the council are spending money on council estates that are run down.

For instance, in Hall i'th' Wood, they are putting speed bumps on the roads to slow down traffic and CCTV cameras to make people feel safer. Now that really makes me laugh. They spent money getting them erected. But why, there is no-one employed to watch the screens? One of the CCTV cameras has been broken into and wires have been cut, or was it that they haven't been connected up yet? Things like this won't improve the estates.

Why don't they spend their money on the houses themselves? In this day and age they have just started to put in upstairs toilets . My house hasn't even got central heating. I have small gas heaters in certain rooms, mine are in the bedrooms, which wasn't my choosing. So the hallway, bathroom and kitchen are like an ice box in winter.

So come on BMBC, get out your nice warm centrally heated offices and have a good walk round the estate, not just once, but more often and you may see what really needs doing. Spend money first on the houses that people live in, not the empty ones.

An angry resident

East Way

Hall i'th' Wood, Bolton

(Name supplied)