THREE cheers for Ken Coups and the Blackpool 1st Alliance -- Citizen August 1 -- for highlighting the amount of money which has been wasted by the council on pushing the plans of a private company at the expense of small businesses.

If the figures he quotes are correct the amount of regeneration money spent to boost Leisure Parcs resort casinos proposals has reached scandalous proportions.

It would not take a fraction of the sum of £300,000 which he says has been paid on public relations consultants to provide small hotels and businesses with as many orange bags free of charge and as many extra street cleaners as are necessary to keep Blackpool clear of litter.

What does the council do instead? It squeezes small enterprises financially untill they are tempted to break the law. Then it invokes the full force of the law and the bully boy tactics of a police state to harass and penalise them.

Locally the Labour Party is the party not just of big business now but the party of just one or two business "Goliaths". Nobody else gets a look in. I for one am rooting for Ken, or should it be "David", the champion of the little man. We can only pray that the end result of this contest is the same.

Leonora Raeburn, Havelock Street, Blackpool.