WITH an escalating number of unpopular measures being voted through by both Lancashire County Council and Blackburn with Darwen Council, due to undue pressure from party whips, surely the North West as a whole could, and, what is more, should, allow locally-elected councillors to vote on their constituents' views and not by diktat from their relevant parties' central office.

Had such been the case, then I very much doubt that the vote to curtail the future of 32 care homes in Lancashire would have been voted through.

MR H ROBINSON, Juniper Court, Huncoat.