REGARDING your article 'Councillors oust Labour boss in pact' (LET, April 3), Councillor Philip Walsh, who was interviewed, mentioned his understandable disappointment in not gaining a place on the new Executive which will operate in Burnley Council from next mon th.

As one of the three Liberal Democrats in the negotiations, I know what has been done to accommodate him. He was asked if he would retain the equivalent of his present chairmanship. My colleague, Coun Charles Bullas, even indicated that he would ensure that Coun Walsh could continue to work with the national and regional bodies with which he has worked so successfully over recent years.

He refused these offers and others made by his Labour colleagues. When the situation was put to the vote, in his own group, he lost to Coun Bullas by a large margin, indicating that the Labour group wishes to give the new system its support, something for which we are grateful.

Coun Walsh also says a 'pact' exists between our two parties. But though the Labour and Liberal Democrat groups on Burnley Council will form the Executive, there is no pact.

All groups on the council were offered places in the executive. The Conservatives, for understandable political reasons, felt that they could not be part. However, the Independent group, the second largest on the council, refused to co-operate almost out of hand.

At the outset, both Labour and the Liberal Democrats indicated that they would have preferred an executive which contained members from all groups, which is what the Citizens' Panel said they wanted -- to put an end to the party political bickering that has gone on for a decade or more.

Liberal Democrats see the new political structures as a means of addressing the concerns of the Citizens' Panel.

COUN ROGER FROST, Cross Street, Briercliffe, Burnley.