WHAT a cheek and how typical that the London Boroughs have decided that it will be cheaper to 'export' hundreds of refugees and asylum seekers to the North, (LET, May 15).

Cheaper for whom? Not the northern Council Tax payers, who will have to foot the bill.

Westminster already has the lowest council tax in the county and was happy to keep the refugees when the Government funded their keep.

Now councils are responsible, London now discovers that northern hostels are cheaper.

They should also realise that, with higher unemployment and deprivation in the North, council taxes are higher.

The North needs support and help, not used as a convenient dustbin for all the South doesn't want.

Perhaps a Parliament for the North, as well as Scotland and Wales, might not be such a bad idea.

KATHLEEN BULCOCK (Mrs), Wilkie Avenue, Burnley.

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