THE council’s parks and ranger consultation 2018 recognises that “parks are vital for the health, fitness and wellbeing of our communities”.

They are also vital for our beleaguered wildlife which is being driven from its natural habitat as humans relentlessly build over more and more of the rural landscape.

As well as the rangers’ many duties in keeping the parks safe for us – and especially for our children – they play a vital role in caring for our wildlife.

They are knowledgeable; they are experienced in the handling of sick and injured animals and birds; they are a source of irreplaceable experience.

To deliberately destroy such a wealth of knowledge and experience would be tantamount to vandalism on the part of our leaders.

And to make such prospects worse, the public see an apparently bottomless purse of money squandered on various vanity projects, eye-watering consultation fees and the city region, which we seem to have joined without adequate consultation.

Many residents would like to see savings made elsewhere, and here are some suggestions.

Perhaps our highly paid executives could take a pay cut, and their gold-plated pensions adjusted accordingly. Perhaps St Helens First could cease publication, making huge savings. A once proud town which needs to be managed with some common sense, compassion and selflessness.

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