COUNCILLOR Jim Hirst (Letters, November 11) certainly does have a legitimate point in criticising the present government's so-called reforms and legislation affecting local government.

The cabinet structures, elected mayors and the two tier level of councillors are nothing more than tried-and-failed imported policies from the USA, which have done nothing to improve public services or increase voter turnout at elections.

Quite the contrary - they are about as modern and new as the picture portrayed of rotten boroughs and local government corruption in Robert Tressell's famous book, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist.

Where Coun Hirst gives the game away is in his last paragraph concerning current Tory policy for local government, blissfully ignoring the legacy left by 18 years of Tory government, which includes rate capping, compulsory competitive tendering, and seven housing acts which have left council-owned housing nationally with a £23 billion deficit on the resources needed to bring them up to satisfactory standards of repair.

It really is a bit rich for Coun Hirst to highlight corruption in Labour-controlled local government, while the former leader of Tory-controlled Westminster Council roams around the world leaving a £20 million surcharge bill unpaid as a result of the homes-for-votes scandal.

COUN DON RISHTON, Livesey Branch Road, Blackburn.

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