I SET out to take my dog for a walk the other day, but when I got to the front door I thought better of it - the rain was torrential.

I noticed three Hyndburn council workers laying tarmacadam in this appalling weather, in which, I am sad to admit, I would not even walk my dog.

Then, I thought of the remarks of Adrian Shurmer (Letters, March 11) about a council worker, who, in his opinion, had not been fined a sufficient amount for overloading his wagon.

I remembered because he and others have written with their complaints about the council. Mr Shurmer is too quick to criticise and jumps on the bandwagon at every opportunity.

Let's be honest: who has never made a mistake? He wants this lone council worker, who may have a wife and children, to pay a heavy fine of £900 - probably 10 per cent of his annual salary, for this one mistake.

Hyndburn has a lot of road humps and traffic-calming schemes, which do annoy us all, but for people with small children, such as myself, it is worth it.

Hyndburn has one of the lowest rates of road accidents in the country and maybe, now and again, we should praise, rather than criticise.

ALEXANDER GORE, St Hubert's Road, Great Harwood.

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