I AM fed up with Conservative councillors in Blackburn, Darwen and Hyndburn forever attempting to belittle the efforts of elected councillors to maintain cost-effective services which are beneficial to all while the Tory Government is consistently interfering in resources.

These are the same ones whose manic cost-cutting in most of our industries in the name of competitiveness (I call it greed) has created agency/contract labour paid as little as £2 an hour, which is replacing decently-paid secure jobs.

Many people I talk to see agency employment as an on-going scourge into the 21st century.

Do the Tories really think that the community will again fall for their rhetorical talk?

SHAUN HUDSON, Newton Street, West End, Oswaldtwistle.

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