Poor Mr Crossley! He uses up so much space in his letters in descending to personal invective against me and praising his town hall heroes that he leaves himself no room to address the points at issue.

He claims at having "conducted a survey amongst holidaymakers" and selected the answers he wished to be put forward. Blackpool has a lot to offer them. Of course it does, they wouldn't be here otherwise would they? There are, however, serious matters in the town in which the interests of tourists and residents do not overlap.

He can hardly claim that the town hall's cruel fiasco over the council homes is a tourist issue can he? Council's new policy of snatching away the traditional bus routes will affect all people, but residents more so and especially the aged and less mobile.

And what about the council's new system of decision making? Fred Karno's Circus in the shadows and behind closed doors! Furthermore it isn't generally known that on adopting the new undemocratic town hall system our ruling councillors gave themselves a wage rise of 100 per cent (no I haven't done an extra nought). They've doubled their wage rates. They make decisions not only outside the light of day but quite outside of Local Government Law. I'll give you a bit more Mr Crossley! Under the stewardship of the present town hall administration we've seen crime in the resort, and especially violent crime, rocket to the point of Blackpool, now being declared as having the most crime-ridden council wards in the county. Only three weeks ago a petition was successfully launched by concerned mothers to prevent images of their children being put on the internet via the town hall computers whereby they would become available to paedophiles. Prior to that the council announced that it is eagerly awaiting the scrapping by their Labour colleagues at Westminster of section 28, which at present protects children from the promotion of homosexuality in schools. These issues, Mr Crossley, are matters mainly for the residents of Blackpool. In fact, holidaymakers remain largely unaffected. Only last week the true state of the town hall accounts became public. This only confirmed what so many suspected. In spite of the town hall receiving more money than at any time in the history of the resort it has spent every penny and is now surviving by using the Emergency Reserve Fund which has been reduced from £14 million to less than £1 million. Residents must be dreading the next rates demand to fall on their doormat. Ah, but when they open the envelope they can take solace that all is well, because my critic has asked the tourists. So it must be true mustn't it? Our town hall administration is a house of cards, ready to collapse about our ears. Take up your pen Mr Crossley before you are overtaken by events!

Peter Roscoe

Bond Street

South Shore