REGARDING Blackburn council employee Mr S Walmsley (Letters, January 25) saying that the people complaining about the lack of gritting do not know what they are talking about, I believe that he is taking the letters of complaints personally.

Nobody in their right minds would accuse the gritters of not doing a sterling job. It is the person or persons in charge who stand accused.

Inclement weather had been forecast and gritting should have been started before the Rovers match on December 29. The reason that the Rovers had a 20,000-plus gate was that the roads were not bad until the weather changed during the match.

Had the gritting started earlier, the roads would not have been cluttered up with football traffic.

Councillor Ashley Whalley, who is in charge of this department, should shoulder full responsibility for this fiasco and other fiascos he has been involved with and should resign or be told to by the Leader of the Council.

By doing this, he may find that council employees will not feel the need to write letters to defend themselves when it is not they who are being accused.

B WHITE (Mr), Risedale Grove, Blackburn.