BLACKPOOL Borough Council seems to be suffering from a split personality. The leader of the council talks of open government and the mayor is urging people to attend Local Area Forums to give their views.

But what is their record with residents' views so far? They closed old peoples' homes against a vast protest.

They sold off Leys Road allotments, in an attempt to balance their struggling budget, against residents' wishes.

They dumped a load of old ironware on South Promenade and won't move it.

They re-routed Illuminations traffic in Bispham with no thought for the local traders whose livelihood depends on it.

They erected traffic obstructions in Lawsons Road and Weymouth Road but can't be bothered to put a left-turn filter on the lights at the end of South Park Drive into Preston New Road to ease the extra congestion that they have caused.

They put an incomprehensible "roundabout" outside the Fylde Coast Hospital then ignore the problems they have created.

They paint cycle lanes, red patches and white "albatross droppings" all over, but roads such as Ansdell Road, Threlfall Road and Annesley Avenue are like third-world cart tracks.

They paint yellow lines around Bryan Road and Forest Gate ahead of regulations and when asked how residents are expected to know the facts, a senior officer is quoted as saying, "All they've got to do is ring us up and ask. It's called communication".

This "communication" is distinctly one way. The council is permanently on "transmit", never on "receive".

Local Area Forums are simply window-dressing if big brother always knows best.

Richard Hook,

Devonshire Road,

Blackpool.