REMARKS by Cllr John Walsh will strike a chord with residents in some of Bolton’s more prosperous areas.

Cllr Walsh, leader of the minority Conservative group on the borough council, believes some available town hall cash should be split equally across all Bolton’s communities.

He has challenged a decision by the ruling Labour group to give more money to those that suffer from the most deprivation.

In the financial year up to March, the council spent £1.3 million on neighbourhood management that paid for area forums, activities for under-18s, volunteer support and minor road repairs.

Spending cuts that have arisen from the Government austerity campaign mean that figure has been reduced to £842,000 for the year up to next April.

The executive, for example, has agreed to allocate £51,158 to Breightmet and £8,125 to Bromley Cross.

Personally, I cannot see anything wrong with this policy.

It is manifestly fairer for poorer areas to be given more money than those where people, generally, are better off.

But Cllr Walsh, who represents Astley Bridge on the council, is an astute political operator who knows he could be on to something here.

“Everyone pays their taxes, so why should some people miss out?” he asks.

As I have gone about my life in retirement I have heard various people in “better” quarters of the town express resentment about expenditure elsewhere.

Sometimes there have been references critical of resources going to areas of the town with a significant ethnic community rather than being used for sorting out real problems in the suburbs.

Cllr Walsh, who was an impressive Mayor of Bolton not long ago, has always supported the interests of all Boltonians.

Maybe he has a point when he suggests some people who live in poorer parts of affluent areas could be missing out.

But it seems unlikely that there is enough cash in the pot to do anything about it during the current crisis.

When Bolton Council meets at 6 pm on Wednesday a motion from Cllr Walsh invites the executive to reconsider its stance.

It is unlikely that Cllr Walsh’s intervention will change the Labour leadership’s views.

But it would seem to prove that divisions in society are widening in austerity Britain.

This particular issue – insignificant in the wider scheme of things – matters to communities on both sides of the divide.