SO David Smalley thinks Blackburn is not a tourist attraction and that Coun Andy Kay is mistaken to think such a thing (LET, April 5).

I am glad we do not all have such negative views as Mr Smalley.

It is the duty of the council to promote all the positive attractions that Blackburn with Darwen has to offer the tourist.

Blackburn has a Cathedral with a magnificent lantern tower and all its history. Church Street displays an array of statues and fountains depicting the crown of cotton on which the town was built and we have one of the finest library and museums in Lancashire.

There's Corporation Park now being restored with its lake and natural beauty cut into the hillside, Billinge Woods and Witton Park, Sunnyhurst Woods and Darwen Tower, providing lovely walks only minutes from the two town centres.

Coun Kay and his colleagues had the vision to see Church Street of the future full of people walking and sitting around the fountains and not seeing cars and lorries pounding down the centre emitting volumes of carbon monoxide.

Of course other towns have different places of interest, but as a native of Blackburn why does he push Preston so much or is he just anti-Labour? He says we are not York, Durham, Chester or Lancaster. Of course we are not, this is Blackburn and it is so easy to criticise, but what we want if we are to make Blackburn with Darwen a better place to live and work are people of vision.

Coun RON O'KEEFFE, Lancashire and Blackpool Tourist Board Member, East Park Road, Blackburn.