WHY did Blackburn police grant a special dispensation to the visiting Liverpool contingent at Ewood Park?

As a local resident without either garage or safe parking space, I have to move my car every match day as, on one occasion, someone sprayed red paint over the bonnet and headlights.

On one occasion last season, I rang the police and asked if I could leave my car outside my door as the clutch cable was frayed and the garage could not do the job until the following Monday and I did not want to risk the cable snapping before then.

The sergeant explained that since the Hillsborough disaster main roads needed to be kept clear in case ambulances were needed. I drove the car to the garage where I was allowed to leave it until the Monday.

But the point is, no special exemption was made in my case and, being a law-abiding citizen, I complied, if with poor grace.

Yet when Liverpool were at Ewood, despite police cones, Langho Street was packed on both sides, from top to bottom, with cars, and other cars were parked on Bolton Road opposite the Aqueduct Hotel, on unbroken yellow lines.

I never saw one windscreen with a parking ticket, although I did notice police vans in certain spots, mainly near pubs.

Are we, therefore, to assume that the police bow to mob rule?

That if the individual citizen makes a polite (and honest and reasonable) request, he will be more or less bullied into complying, while a demonstration of open defiance by large numbers will nullify "law and order?"

Could lack of self discipline, displayed by large groups, paralyse our constabulary and judicial procedures?

If the answer to these queries is 'yes,' then there is little hope for this former law-abiding country.

F BURNS, Livesey Branch Road, Blackburn.

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