AS a former chairman of the Blackburn with Darwen Council's community and leisure committee, I am fully aware of the difficult choices involved in making enforced cutbacks to the leisure, cultural and sporting services.

However, I think that your correspondents M Clarke, R Crompton, C A Bakewell and T N Taylor (Letters, January 23) have been misled into thinking that the council has or had any plans to close the Lewis Textile Museum.

Unfortunately, headlines such as 'Council plans to close textile museum' (LET, January 19) and 'U-turn over textile museum' don't help the situation.

As far as I know, all information relating to the council's budget plans has referred to the Lewis Textile Museum being 'relocated.'

This is, of course, far different than 'closure.' Indeed, the plans to relocate the displays within the main museum will actually improve the displays as the council has received grants to do just that.

COUN DAVE SMITH (Sunnyhurst Ward), Avondale Road, Darwen.

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