WHAT a kick in the teeth for Barnoldswick! Only months after the Tourist Information Centre was done up at public expense, Liberal Democrat Pendle Council is to close it, (LET, May 22).

What a waste of public money!

This short-sighted, Scrooge-like closure is not only incompetent (why was the go-ahead given to refurbish, if the office was to be axed?) but it tells the residents of Barnoldswick that they don't matter, their children's futures don't matter and the very life of Barnoldswick itself doesn't matter in the Lib-Dem scheme of things.

Barnoldswick is home to Rolls-Royce, the largest employer in Pendle, still with over 1,000 employees in the borough. But not everyone can work for high-tech industry which needs less and less labour as technology advances.

To be successful in economic re-generation, a town needs twin-track development: one track being world-class, high-tech industry, keeping Barnoldswick on the world technology map, and the twin track being labour-intensive, responsive services providing full employment. This is where tourism comes in. Barnoldswick and the surrounding countryside has so much to offer, attracting recent visitors from Sweden and Canada.

Developing tourism is a must if we are to have full employment in Pendle. Shutting up shop as the Lib-Dems are doing is the route to unemployment, hopelessness and decay.

Barlickers in Coates and Craven Wards have the chance to tell the Lib-Dems what they think of this kick in the teeth at the twin by-election on June 27.

COUN ROGER ABBISS (Labour), Laund Farm, Wheatley Lane Road, Barrowford.

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