APPROXIMATELY five years ago I inquired about the purchase of the old Police House on King Street, Blackburn, only to be told by the Heritage Office in Manchester that this would be impossible as it was a listed building.

I turned my attention to a church in the vicinity of the Wainwright Bridge and again found there was a condition with regards to a graveyard to the rear and would take time and money to sort it out.

I am a small businessman in Blackburn, but I did my homework on both properties before entering into any agreement.

Surely with all the expertise the council is supposed to have, it would have saved an enormous amount of time and money if it had done the same.

I would also like to draw people’s attention to the Keep Trade Local campaign being organised by the Federation of Small Businesses.

Blackburn with Darwen Council always encouraging this, but seems not to do so itself.

We have supplied goods to the council for around ten years, up to 18 months ago, helping all its employees through very difficult retraining via procurement.

Our staff gave hours of their time to make this transition as easy as possible for them for and we received numerous letters of thanks from the staff personally.

Then we were told we would have to tender for future custom, because of some EU Directive, which was verified by Jack Straw.

We were not successful in the tender. It would have been of some consolation if we had lost to another local company but this was not the case. Even if we have goods in stock and they are desperate, staff are not allowed to order from us. Jack Straw supports of the Federation of Small Businesses campaign for keep trade local and I hope to have a meeting with him to discuss what progress the government has made in this direction.

RAY LOMAS, Lomas Office Supplies, King Street, Blackburn.