IT is time that Accrington and Rossendale College principal Michael Austin took some responsibility for his dreadful mismanagement of the college.

An industrial tribunal unanimously agreed that I had been unfairly dismissed.

The selection process whereby I and 13 colleagues suffered humiliation and pain of compulsory redundancy was unlawful.

And while Mr Austin acknowledges that my appeal was handled badly, he takes no responsibility for that - even though he was the sole person in charge of my appeal. Since my sacking, 341 part-time lecturers have been sacked, followed by Pat Walsh, branch secretary of the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education.

The college faces 20-odd more tribunal cases. No doubt Mr Austin will continue to 'justify' his actions.

Would it really be too much for him just to apologise or doesn't he know how to say: "I was wrong; I'm sorry."

B STOTT (Mrs), Grane Road, Haslingden.

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