I WROTE on April 22 about the unfairness of London and Norfolk being chosen as a trial for £1,100 free nursery vouchers.

These were for state or private nursery schools, and would have benefited single mothers in the North West.

The House of Lords has now rejected making the scheme available nationwide. How far from he real world are the Lords? What do they know of the daily grind of the unemployed or those trying to exist on ever-diminishing state benefits?

If the reason for rejection is because the scheme is not working well, why wasn't a better scheme introduced in the first place? It should be scrapped altogether and the money made available for the use of everyone.

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.