I READ with interest your article "Planning warning on 2000 projects" (LET, February 3), where the chairman of the North West Tourist Board, Anthony Goldstone, expresses worries about millennium projects "falling behind schedule" or being "abandoned altogether."

I have written to Mr Goldstone to inform him that more than 80 per cent of Millennium Commission capital projects expected to be complete by the end of 2000 are already finished or on schedule to finish.

Projects funded by the Millennium Commission were never intended to be completed by the year 2000.

We are spreading more than £2 billion of lottery money all around the UK and to expect this kind of investment to come on line all at one time is unrealistic and undesirable.

The Millennium Commission has distributed £74 million around the North West of England.

Large-scale projects, such as the Lowry in Salford, which is opening on schedule in April, will bring thousands of visitors to the area, while smaller projects, such as the Forest of Burnley, are involving communities in providing a better environment for us all.

Such projects create jobs, boost the local economy and leave a lasting legacy for our children. Governments around the world admire what Britain is doing to mark the millennium.

It is a peculiarly British form of self-abuse when we knock our own achievements.

MIKE O'CONNOR, Director, The Millennium Commission, Stag Place, London SW1.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.