COUNTY Councillor Richard Toon (Letters, July 2) seems not to have been paying attention to the ongoing debate about traffic calming and recent election results in Hyndburn.

Can I suggest he quickly obtains a copy of the Lancashire Evening Telegraph's Comment column of June 16, reads and digests it before putting pen to paper and repeating the party line, M- la George Slynn (deposed)?

His comments are typical of the school bully - the new boy must be put in his place, and kowtow to the party prefects. Unfortunately, Coun Adrian Shurmer, of Hyndburn, is an independent - his prefects are the voters.

County Coun Toon seems to forget that Coun Shurmer was overwhelmingly elected by the people of Netherton Ward. While they may have voted for Coun Shurmer for differing reasons, one of the main ones was to have to rethink on the terrible mess that the previous administration had made of the roads.

Despite face-saving claims by the defeated Labour people, it should be clearly understood that Coun Shurmer, together with myself as his agent, campaigned and organised alone to achieve the rather surprising outcome. This fact suggests his position on traffic calming was more than welcomed by the electorate.

In other words, he has every right to campaign for a review and attempt to carry through a policy for which he has cast-iron mandate. I doubt County Coun Toon can match that specific and recent mandate for his policies.

He speaks of the reality of traffic planning in the county - how careful and considered it is and how it is applied with great expertise. Well, it may be in the rest of the county, but not in Hyndburn.

I notice that Chorley and Leyland (Coun Toon's home ground), have no schemes comparable with those in Hyndburn.

Hyndburn's main roads are gridlocked by schemes that seem not to appear anywhere else in the county.

Regarding the expertise, I fear that is a red herring. Two Rishton examples shoot down that assertion - the Norden Bridge variable-width gateway and the High Street pelican crossing.

The leading architect of these botch-ups is even now trying to implement an inner ring road in Blackburn.

JOHN DUCKWORTH, Bostons, Great Harwood.

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