HYNDBURN Council is trying very hard to improve race relations. A simple instance where a few people in a household have got over-anxious about a newborn baby's feed has been blown out of all proportion.

Why had none of the family members - mentioned in the front page story (Citizen, August 22) - think to buy some baby formula before most shops shut? There are so many places open on a Sunday.

I feel the Citizen should retract the story because it left me with the impression that this family were either too unintelligent or too mean to go and buy formula baby milk.

The hospital that gave Mr Halim the milk must have very poor security procedures.

I hope that your article does not give rise to anyone trying to enter a maternity unit using this excuse.

St Luke's Hospital need an urgent review of security, and the staff involved need to explain why a person unrelated to anyone in the unit was allowed admission for whatever purpose.

As the staff at Queen's Park advised, many places do sell baby formula milk.

The Citizen newspaper has a list of chemist shops open until early Monday morning.

I cannot believe, as a breast-feeding mother myself, that Mrs Halim's problem occurred so suddenly in the middle of the night when she had been feeding for 12 days and no one in the house had time to go to the shop for a small tin of baby formula.

I feel this article has blown this incident out of proportion. And it also raises the point that this family was Asian.

People reading the article will once again be encouraged to judge all ethnic minority families by this.

It does nothing to show people from ethnic minorities as they really are.

To most it will seem incomprehensible that a family in a close-knit community, known for strong extended family ties, did not know someone close by with some baby milk, or where to buy some at short notice.

Bradford is around an hour journey from Accrington. My husband travelled to work daily for more than five years to the far side of Bradford in rush hour traffic. Padding out the facts does not help either.

I wish Mr and Mrs Halim all the best with baby Huma. However, I feel the problems the family faced where made by themselves. A very frustrating situation was made worse by lack of common sense.

Mrs Helen Smith

Hermitage Street

Rishton.

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