COVENT Garden without its opera? Edinburgh without its theatre? Glastonbury without its rockfest? Lancaster without its literature?

Twenty years of living and working in the North West (as a refugee from the Midlands) and always during that time visiting Lancaster - and more recently Morecambe - as the centres of excellence for the arts. Much better than Manchester and Liverpool, bogged down as they are in urban politics.

I had always assumed that Lancaster was proud of its international reputation for profound cultural investment and that it had shown tremendous enlightenment in nurturing neighbouring Morecambe back to health with a similar injection of grassroots support for the arts.

Now I hear that at the first sign of budget squeeze, Lancaster City Council plans to shoot in the foot the very things that make it unique. If it's what the people of Lancaster want, then I guess that's fair enough. I for one shall be sad to see such an international beacon disappear.

Gary Boswell , by email