BLACKBURN with Darwen Council is beyond belief. Firstly, against the people's wishes, it closes down the Lewis Textile Museum (which was left to the people of the borough) to save £23,000.

That amounts to the community charge of 23 houses on my street, a paltry sum, set against the multi-million pound budget the councillors get to squander each year.

Now the museum building is to be opened as a centre for ex-drug addicts.

This council has no respect for this town's heritage or the people who live here now.

I used to visit the LTM from time to time and I also took my children there.

Inside was a large, blown-up photo showing children working in Holehouse Mill, at the end of the 1800s. The tall girl on the right was my grandmother. She was born in 1883 and worked most of her life in the mills. She married and had six children, two who died early in their lives.

Her husband, my grandfather, went off to fight in the Great War. He returned just before the end of the war, having been gassed. As a result of this he died in 1920 when his lungs gave up.

My grandmother was part of the heritage of this town and my grandfather fought and died to retain that heritage.

The heritage that this council cast aside so casually. I say shame on you all.

STAN MELLING, Kingsway, Lower Darwen, Darwen.