AS a result of an incident which occurred earlier in the summer, may I venture to suggest that the legend 'Blackpool -- Where people come first' included in the Borough Council's letterhead logo, puts Blackpool surely in line for the title of the "most hypocritical local authority" in the country.

We are both octogenarians and, in the course of our first-ever venture to Blackpool by car, I developed a most inconvenient attack of 'Montezuma's Revenge' (North Country version). We struck the promenade somewhere near the South Shore and drove desperately up and down, from island to island and back again in search of toilets and somewhere near them to pull out of the traffic.

These requirements for people obviously did not "come first" in Blackpool Borough Council's' priorities as neither objective seemed attainable until, suddenly and with tremendous relief, we found a smallish blue P sign on the Starr Gate island pointing to a vast empty space, surfaced with greyish rubble, resembling, as my wife remarked at the time, a building-site on which rested half a dozen, widely dispersed cars and a transit van.

There was absolutely no indication that we were actually in a pay-toll municipal car park -- especially as the single ticket machine was shielded, some distance away, by a transit van parked across it. Most official car parks, hereabouts in the Midlands do have ample "Have you paid and displayed?" reminders clearly visible in some quantity so that unwary people are not trapped into breaches of the regulations. We noticed nothing of the kind to keep up us on the straight and narrow.

Fortunately, we were able to find a discreet corner to tidy up and remove the discomfort and returned to the car some minutes later to find a £30 fixed penalty notice tucked under the wipers. What alacrity on the part of the patrol and what a shock to a couple of OAPs in trouble: but never mind, "Blackpool is where people come first"!

We appealed in vain to the Borough Council, to which "People come first", but got no more than its regrets at our predicament and a Shylock-like extraction of the fine (less 50% for prompt payment!). The letter informing us of the Council's response was boldly headed "Blackpool: Where people come first" -- a truly noble sentiment if it were anything like the truth.

No, Blackpool Borough Council, for sheer hypocrisy the motto takes some beating. We have suggested that a few "Have you paid?" reminders might be helpful and we also hope that more readily-accessible toilet facilities might be available to later generations of visitors.

There seems no hope of the mitigating circumstances being accepted and our penalty rescinded.

H A Hill,

Brooklands Lane,

Redditch,

Worcs.