The leader of the council's Labour group, Alison Moore, blamed "a combination of several years of neglect and apparently bad maintenance work".

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He plans, for example, to dedicate 60% of his new fund to energy infrastructure, certain that decades of neglect and underinvestment will cause oil and gas companies to work off their cash piles fixing things up.

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Instead of easy handouts, people who neglect their duties could be taught responsibility and the dignity of work.

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This could lead to neglect of the fundamental problems that impede successful outcomes in their area of work.

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Work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith said policy had "cloaked neglect of the family under the veil of neutrality".

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Work started on the site in Otterspool in February 2010, after years of neglect and a protracted planning application process.

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