All may not be as it seems... (From Crewe Guardian)

All may not be as it seems...

3:35pm Thursday 24th November 2011 in Letters

The motto on the windows of Crewe Town Hall is ‘esse quam videre’ – ‘to be rather than to seem to be’.

By contrast Niccolo Machiavelli advised rulers ‘videre quam esse’ – ‘to seem rather than to be’.

Certainly the Conservatives are saying that they support local markets, but actually they have increased rents, issued parking tickets to stallholders while they were unloading and left money earmarked for market improvements unspent.

Not surprisingly this has led to a sharp reduction in the number of stalls on local markets.

I urge the council to invest in incentives to promote historic local markets because they help build communities and provide an outlet for local produce.

When the markets are full and there is demand for more stalls, then rents could be increased and the investment recovered.

I wonder whether the local Conservatives are actually supporting local markets (esse quam videre) or merely wish to seem to support local markets (videre quam esse) while in fact they run them down on the ideological basis that the ratepayers shouldn’t support ‘unprofitable’ community activities.

Sam Corcoran 7 Radbroke Close Sandbach