Ever played Monopoly? - Most of us will have done so - it's a game where the 'players' start off with an equal amount of money and then proceed to 'buy' property and land. The players aren't concerned about who owns the property - they just want to buy it all then rent it out and make even more money. The winner of the game is whoever has the most money and property.

It's funny how a board game could actually be the model for the system we have in Kirkby, this town is actually a giant game of Monopoly - played by the Councillors and Contractors and others. The people of Kirkby are the spectators and the losers - the fall guys who watch on puzzled and worried. Sometimes we become involved too late, like the people in Towerhill who were told their houses are going to be part of the game soon. Unlike the board game of monopoly - Knowsley Councils game of Monopoly has no clear rules. It seems they make them up as they go along. They can do anything they want in the game they are playing. It would, as one of Kirkby Times contributors put it 'be laughable if weren't so criminal' - Read on…….

Kirkby is being sold off on the cheap. We once had a great Town Center with many local small businesses; we had a magistrate's court and juvenile court plus many decent long term Family GP's. We had the biggest all boys Catholic Comprehensive in the UK and dozens of school teams and individuals competing at a high level in the many different leagues and competitions we had. Kirkby had the honour of being a small Town with two Sports Stadiums. We had a Sports stadium in Westvale, which was once the best of its kind in the Country, a home of champions and a money spinner which was mismanaged till Knowsley Council let that go to ruin and now plan to make some lucky firm rich by selling off the land.

Who remembers yet another stadium we used to have - Kirkby Town Stadium up past the Molly Pub along Westhead Avenue in Northwood? It used to stage Stock Car racing - It was a venue for holding small festivals (Kirkby CND once held a festival there with John Peel, Billy Brag and Blue Vein) it had a full sized football pitch with room for thousands of spectators plus a functions and presentation rooms and a bar. Who can forget the nightclub there? - It may not have been the worlds greatest but it was a decent place and a great handy place on our doorstep, but now it's just another part of our culture that's lost. The place was left to go to ruin and in its place we have a tiny, by comparison, 'Resource Center' and private nursery which many local mums cannot afford. The actual building is closed in the evening whilst kids hang around in the streets.

Remember the floodlit football pitch by the Golden Eagle?

We also have a number of small 5 a side (or bigger) pitches which were once floodlit at night and a place for kids to play for free. By the Golden Eagle/All Saints was such a place - and another floodlit 5 a side pitch by Quarry Green Tower Blocks in Roughwood Woods. All Saints has seen a massive slice of its field turned into yet another housing estate - same with St Kevin's and many other schools are lined up for closure. Every spare piece of land has been sold off - few green spaces remain now - and what do we, the people of Kirkby get in return for all our loyalty to Labour? - Read the above list - all that was down to Labour. If your councillor has not spoken out in public against this destruction of Kirkby then vote them out. Kirkby's loyalty to Labour is like a battered wives loyalty to her sick husband. Kirkby is like a game of monopoly where the contractors and councillors are the winners - and the poor mugs here are the losers as we see the place turned into a concrete Jungle.

Remember the Bowling Greens carefully tended by the Council employed workers in Webster Park? Many hundreds of Kirkby people used the Bowling facility, from teenagers to old pensioners. We also had a decent set of tennis Courts there (3 or 4) plus a basketball pitch. Many of us will remember the park itself when it had swings, a slide, a 'witch's hat', plus monkey bars and a see saw and a small sandpit for the toddlers and a separate toddlers play area. Webster Park still has some nice greenery and flowers, but even that's been scaled back. A good part of Webster Park, and spare green field at the back of it was sold off to contractors a good few years ago - this was more land sold off and its only one of hundreds of similar deals. Every time the Council or Contractors roll the dice - it comes up on 6 time and time again.

Unless the situation regarding the complex land deals and grants here is investigated and scrutinised in Public - the people of Kirkby will pay a bitter price in the years to come. Pretty soon - the European funds will run dry - the Gravy train of SRB funds will come to a grinding halt - and Kirkby will be left wondering how we sold off the Town yet got nothing in return apart from Sonae, more housing estates and less health and leisure and educational facilities. We NEED this money which is being wasted with reckless abandon. We are NOT in a position to fund the many firms and businesses that have held out the begging bowl.

The Unwritten Rule - "Don't get caught"

When you buy the boxed board game of Monopoly - included amongst the odds and ends will be a clear set of rules which the players adhere to. In Knowsley Councils version of Kirkby Monopoly the rules are simple. If Dave Tempest, the ex Leader of Knowsley Council was alive, he would perhaps tell you the rule is "don't get caught" - He was caught and served time in Jail for robbing the good people of Towerhill in particular. You can still see a plaque honouring Tempest in the foyer entrance of the Kirkby Civic Building. Let's hope that it can be removed along with the discredited New Labourites of Kirkby.