READERS may remember your article (LET, April 3) about a row between Blackburn Council and Byrom Supplies.

Taking into account these additional facts, they may decide that an injustice has been done to a respectable local trader.

Byrom Supplies are a builders merchants and employ a number of local people. The company applied for a grant; the council turned it down. Yet some new kids on the block, with premises just yards from Byrom Supplies, applied for, and were given, a five-figure grant.

The council then ordered Mr Paul Rigby, Byrom's proprietor, to take down or cover his advertising signs. They said he was breaking the environmental rules and said his signs were an eyesore.

A pile of rubble adjoining Mr Rigby's property and owned by, or under the control of, the council is one of the most decrepit and scruffy buildings in Blackburn.

The kids refer to it as Dracula's Town House; yes, it's what's left of the old county court building facing King Street and Montague Street. This so-called listed building is a disgrace to the area.

And just to add insult to injury, not more than 50 yards from Mr Rigby's place, there is the former Anelay's Motors building, whose scruffy, broken windows, partly boarded up, grafitti and fly poster-covered frontage would not look out of place in the Bronx.

So, we must ask ourselves, are there different rules and regulations applying in Blackburn for different traders? Are the council playing with a straight bat? And when is an eyesore not an eyesore?

EDDIE DUXBURY, Arthur Way, Blackburn.

FOOTNOTE: A council spokesman said Mr Rigby was told to remove advertising hoardings as he did not have planning permission for the signs. He was invited to submit a planning application for amended signage, but chose instead to cover the hoardings with unsightly wooden boards.

Applications for business assistance are awarded to companies which meet the appropriate criteria.

The former county court building is currently owned by Lancashire County Council which is responsible for its maintenance and appearance - Editor

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