ON THE 14th of this month, I attended the first of the council area forums and I was pleased to hear about the way that people will able to voice their views on matters that affect their day-to-day lives.

One topic which was mentioned was the selling of all St Helens Council houses, the reason being that some £28 million needs to be spent on council houses throughout the borough to bring them up to standard. The council does not have this sum at its disposal.

This comes as no surprise when you consider the vast sums which have been squandered on council estates. Just think about how much was thrown at New Street estate. First it was Beth Avenue estate, then Eugene Avenue and finally, it was demolished and re-built as Ridgewood Avenue estate. The cost of the ever-changing street signs would have paid for more repairs to council houses alone!

Then there was Peasley View, yet another disaster, demolished and re-built. And what about these awful three-storey houses that no one wanted to live in, in Parr? The council's solution was to saw one storey off these houses, then re-build them -- yet more millions wasted.

The latest disaster was Thomas Square. This originally took three times as long to build as it should have and now has also been flattened at God only knows what cost.

The council seem to act like headless chickens, throwing money at problems of their own creation. The latest solution to the council housing mess seems to be that, at last, they are washing their hands of the whole matter and selling their problems to a housing company. But I ask that they remember that the council's yesterday problems will become tomorrow's problems for the long-suffering tenants of St Helens.

Mr G. Pulfer, Hoghton Road, Sutton.