AFTER reading your article on so-called 'voice of the people' citizens' panel (LET, March 31), I have to say that it proves just what a two-faced hypocrite the leader of Hyndburn Council, George Slynn, really is.

For 10 years he has listened to no-one - the opposition, the public, and even his own group. It's been a case of "You will do as I say or suffer the consequences." Since he took over as leader of the council he has ruled Hyndburn as a latter-day Stalin, but now he is about to lose his seat in the May elections, he has suddenly said he wants to listen and is using his favourite buzz word 'partnership.' What hypocrisy!

The leader of the Conservative group on Hyndburn Council, Peter Britcliffe, has been pushing for ordinary people to be given a say in what happens in their own communities and this is part of the Tory group's policy.

Now, George is doing his favourite impression of a cuckoo, laying eggs in someone else's nest. Bereft of his own ideas, he continually steals those of others.

The ruling Labour group in Hyndburn have betrayed the people of the borough over the last 13 years. Before May, 1997, anything and everything that went wrong in Hyndburn was blamed on the Tories. Since the election of a Labour government they now stand like the emperor with his new suits of clothes. Now, everyone can see the naked truth.

George and his cronies have to go. Let's make it a great day for Hyndburn on May 6 and give the borough the fresh start it so richly deserves.

JOHN D FARRER, Mallard Place, Oswaldtwistle.

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