OVER the past few months I have read with interest the correspondence from A. Withington in which he appeared to be drawing attention to the shoddy approach by Bury Council towards its fiscal responsibility.

His letters invariably meet with self-serving responses from councillors reeking of rank-closing, and last week's suggestion by Councillor Byrne that local people "take time to study council papers properly" and that "councillors and officers are only too pleased to help" was frankly, visible.

Try walking into the town hall, on Monday next, and sense their "pleasure" as you ask to see, for example, a copy of the unaudited accounts for the financial year just ended.

But his retort was nothing compared with the howler in the letter from Councillor Howcroft which followed. Adopting a school-marm approach she suggested Mr Withington had dropped marks in his homework and there followed an unconvincing four paragraph attempt to justify councillors' remuneration while marvelling at their work-rates: "Some councillors do three advice surgeries a month" she enthused.

Too much, surely, for a mere whinging letters page correspondent to even contemplate? Piling on the sarcasm, she coyly concludes: "Would our critic care to stand for election as councillor"?

Er, whoops, well, er "Yes", at least if he is the same Arthur Withington who stood (albeit unsuccessfully) as Independent candidate (polling 285 votes) for Redvales Ward in May this year, he probably would, Ma'am.

Detention and extra lessons in back-pedalling all round!

DAVID HARGREAVES,

Market Street,

Tottington.

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