I could not help noticing the article on Crossrail and the letter 'Council must asve our leisure centre' (September 21).

Firstly, about Crossrail station in Woolwich. Woolwich is only down the line from Abbey Wood and it is already getting the DLR to link it to North Greenwich and Lewisham, to make it into a gateway for swift connection into central London. The council has already put aside nearly £250,000 to petition parliament to have another Crossrail station in Woolwich.

Plumstead leisure centre is in danger of being closed because it was starved of investments. I have seen the Greenwich Strategy and I can see there are planned spending for a £60m centre for Woolwich; £20m centre for east Greenwich; and a £20m centre for Eltham. The residents of Plumstead and Abbey Wood pay their council taxes so why are they excluded all the time?

Christmas decorations stop at the police station in the high street, while Eltham, Greenwich, and Woolwich have thousands spent on their Xmas decorations!

I have in the past asked to be supplied with information with regard the funding of these activities but, as usual, I never got any joy! Why do we have to lose out always in this part of the borough? Why exclude us all the time?

As I have already mentioned, we do pay our council taxes but we are not being given our share of the cake!

Without central government and other funding bodies' handouts, the situation would have been worse in this part of the borough right now!

Tell me please, is there any logical reason for spending £250,000 on petitioning for a Crossrail station in Woolwich when people can take a ride to Abbey Wood and change, while Plumstead leisure centre is in danger of closing due to lack of investments? Some of our officers have got their priorities wrong because they do not live in the borough.

Some of the councillors are scared to speak out because they do not want to be harrassed and sent to Coventry like they have done to me. Councillorship is life and death to them but not what they give in return to those that elected them. They need to stand up and be counted!

We are elected by the residents and not the party, therefore we must always listen to them! What we need in Greenwich is a system of elected executive mayor to cut out patronage, cronyism, and party politics. Someone to listen to and serve the people that elected them into office!

Cllr Ismail Danesi