IN response to your headline 'Muddy Hell' (LET, April 11) I would like to inform your readers that this is not representative of the people who live on the Stoops Estate in Burnley.

The damage done to these properties was caused by outsiders who, in the main, do not live anywhere near Rome Avenue.

The majority of the residents of Rome Avenue are good people who take pride in their homes, people who tend their gardens and are conscientious people with a sense of community.

Your sensational headline was completely negative and wholly untrue.

I have lived on Rome Avenue for several years and have never heard anyone refer to our estate as 'Beirut'.

I seem to recall Beirut was involved in a civil war, where people of different religious and ethnic backgrounds were engaged in wholesale slaughter. As yet, I have not seen one rocket-propelled grenade or armoured personnel carrier on the estate.

Why doesn't your paper report the positive things which groups like South West Burnley Community Development Trust are carrying out on the estate, creating a sense of community by getting people involved in projects that are beneficial to all

I feel Stoops Estate deserves better press than it gets and that your paper is helping to perpetuate the idea that everyone on the estate is either a junkie, a thief or a combination of both. I can assure your readers that this is not the case.

J BIRKETT (Mr), Rome Avenue, Burnley.

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