I WOULD like to add my voice to the debate about whether we should name the planned bridge across the River Lune after Lady Diana or Lord Ashton.

My view is that we should NOT name it after either of those people.

For a start Lady Diana never came to our city.

And, in any case, I suspect the sudden proposal was due to former council leader Stanley Henig's forgotten promise to construct some sort of monument to her shortly after her tragic death. When it was brought up again, Stan and his council officer friends no doubt had a quick, desperate, look for something to stick her name to and the answer was obvious. There's no way anyone who ever had the misfortune to work for Lord Ashton's starvation wages would believe anyone was seriously considering naming a major new construction after him.

Ashton suppressed his workers and suddenly withdrew all his patronage when a large number of them didn't vote the way he wanted at a local election.

One time he tried to buy his way back into their affections by giving each worker a pie and a shilling. He went home to find a huge pile of the pies hurled at his door. That's what his workers thought of him and for good reason.

Everybody I speak to about the bridge already calls it 'The Millennium Bridge'.

It's easy, relevant and will doubtless be known as that by most people anyway. Just this week I heard people talking about the bridge and they called all called it the Millennium Bridge.

Local people already identified it by that name. It's supposed to be for them.

Mr Kenneth Ineson, Skerton

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