I FELT compelled to put pen to paper after reading Joseph H Wright's letter (LET, April 27) about our latest piece of mawkish public art, and I wholeheartedly agree with him about it being a great, rusting drum.

Far from attracting tourists, I feel that the only people it could well attract, are yobs intent on seeing if it can be freed from its moorings to enable the rusting hulk to be rolled downhill into the lodge in Ashton Park, Darwen.

We all know that a seat in the shade is sometimes extremely pleasant in the summer months, but I cannot see what pleasure anyone could possible gain by sitting next to this prodigious monstrosity, unless it is used as a confessional seat, as it is impossible to see your 'neighbour' on the adjacent pew.

The 'free' area around these seats would have been better deployed with a rubbish bin cemented onto the paving, as the current rubbish bin is embedded in the grassland bordering these seats, and is constantly being ripped from its base by rogues with nothing better to do, and its contents strewn along the shrubbery next to it.

So come on Blackburn Borough Council, give the locals what they need, and not what you deem is fit for the people! Return this boorish piece of art to the scrapyard where it belongs!

P CAMPBELL-JONES, Aysgarth Drive, Darwen.