THE LOAN PROPOSALS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 62, 18 March 1913, Page 5

THE LOAN PROPOSALS.

(To the Editor “Stratford Post.”)

Sir, —Although Mr Richards has ably pointed out that the total increase in our rates if all the proposals are carried, yet it may be useful, since the proposed loans are separated to show exactly how each one will affect each person. The bulk of the sections in Stratford on the unimproved rating will bo valued at about £SO. 1 will therefore take a fifty pound section as my model. For such a section the yearly increase of rates will be as follows:—Works, os drainage, 3s 4Jd; bridge, Is 10-icl; water, Is Oid; total, 11s 9d. Of these works and drainage stand out easily on their own. Whether so large a sum should be spent upon them seems questionable, especially in face of the fact that it is proposed to spend no loss a sum than £3OOO on Broadway between Fenton Street and Regan Street. Taking this distance to be ten chains, it means that no less than £3OO is to be spent on each chain. Surely this is extravagance ! The water and the bridge are on a different footing. Water is a necessity, and so far as the bridge is concerned whether the Council likes it or not they must, according to Messrs Robinson and Christopher’s report, spend almost immediately a sum approaching a thousand pounds to patch up the present unsafe and unsightly structure. Surely it is better to make a job of it once for alb especially when we see that the annual cost to the majority of ratepayers will be less than a couple of shillings a year.—l am, etc.,

H. WILSON. Broadway, 17th March, 1913.