I WAS delighted that Leo Conroy (Letters, June 7) enjoyed The Darwen Music Festival. As the local politician who initiated and has steered the Festival 2000 programme, of which this event was a part, I am delighted to be associated with its success, just as I am with the music offered in events already held and those that will be.

None of these would have come to fruition but for the dedication and hard work of the Council's Millennium Officer, Carl Hutton, and the various promoters and individuals, or the support of the entire Council which unanimously backed Festival 2000.

This is the same Council which is also about to agree around £400,000 expenditure on King George's Hall in order that 'standing live concerts' for rock and pop bands can be resumed.

The Council has already approved an initial £100,000 for a continuation of Festival 2000 into 2001, which is the 150th Anniversary of the Borough of Blackburn and which will have at least as much live music again as this year, including, I am delighted to say, another and perhaps bigger and better Darwen Music Festival.

It is also the same Council that is bound by the laws of the land however much many individual councillors might disagree with specific ones, including the ridiculous nonsense that suggests a karaoke machine or indeed any form of electronic backing equipment constitutes a "person" in terms of live performance and thus the licence that governs it.

That is exactly why we have written to the Home Office outlining our support for change as part of the current review.

However, both as individuals and as a council we do support the requirements to introduce reasonable safety standards into buildings where relatively large numbers of the public gather.

There have been too many tragedies both in the UK and globally, where inadequate safety precautions have led to wholesale deaths, particularly of young people. Some of us believe that the brewers and/or pub-chain operators are very slow in bringing their premises up to standard.

For the owner-occupier licensee, there is a financial dilemma and some vigorous but positive campaigning needs to be done to see what comprises or assistance can be agreed with central government.

As the father of a son whose talented band is currently trying to make its first major impact on the rock world, more small and medium sized venues are exactly what I would like to see.

To suggest that, as a councillor, I and my 35 Labour colleagues, and, I suspect, a number of opposition members too, are somehow against live music in pubs and clubs is as ridiculous as it is wrong.

After all, it was this Labour Council that gave the borough the opportunity of possibly the most liberal licensing laws in England and Wales which had made Blackburn a centre of nightlife in the region.

Councillor ASHLEY WHALLEY (Executive Board Member -- Blackburn with Darwen Council), Columbia Way, Blackburn.