SIR – It comes as no surprise that Councils in Yorkshire are now probably facing large reductions in staff due to cuts in their income, mostly from central government.

That could have been predicted at least 18 months ago when the recession started to bite. Therefore, we would assume the priority was for Councils to attract or encourage business, that is, real business, not just the vague possibility of retail shopping, to come to our towns and cities.

Instead, what does Bradford do? It decides to go ahead with a fantastically expensive cosmetic landscape project – ie, the City Park – which many agree is a waste of scarce resources, and which will probably go way over budget and could deteriorate into an eyesore.

Try explaining that to those who will be made redundant or are already unemployed. Bradford’s manufacturing heyday, especially textiles, may be in the past, but every economist will tell you that once commerce is doing well and people have money in their pockets, then everything else will follow suit.

The Victorians knew very well that when business was booming, that was the time to spend on luxuries like grandiose civic building projects, not when you were hard-up.

S Bennett, Grafton Road, Keighley