IN REPLY to Mrs Vaughan (Letters, August 18), there have been a number of meetings involving Blackburn Chamber of Trade on the issue of Church Street.

In September 1999 the Chamber's policy was agreed that Church Street must be made more pedestrian friendly and also keep it open to traffic in some way.

In September 1999 a meeting was held in Blackburn Cathedral Crypt involving the Chamber and others to be informed by highways and transport officers of road modifications and proposals for Church Street. After the officers completed their brief a lengthy debate ensued and at the end of the meeting a vote was taken on the closure of Church Street. The vote was carried to oppose the total closure of Church Street. In February this year at the monthly executive Chamber meeting, Church Street was again debated and a straw poll show of hands produced a majority against Church Street's total closure and no other record in Chamber minutes says different.

The Chamber has produced its own proposal for Church Street in the form of a detail plan drawing. Copies have been sent to all councillors, it has been reproduced in colour in the Lancashire Evening Telegraph. It has been presented to the Chamber's executive. No one as yet has come forward to condemn the plan. Can we then assume the Chamber's plan is acceptable?

As the minutes of the above mentioned meetings were reliably taken, documented and passed as a true record of Chamber business, any executive member who is for the total closure of Church Street must surely be in the minority.

As for having a bite at the cherry, if you choose the wrong one it could have a sour centre.

RAYMOND GOLDSTONE, Blackburn Market Tenants Association, Ainsworth Street, Blackburn.