LABOUR-run Blackburn Council still don't seem to have got the message.

I refer to the tirade from the ousted Labour councillor from Mill Hill, Dave Harling.

His remarks (Letters, May 24), read something like: "After all I've done for you lot, that's the way I've been treated." Talk about sour grapes.

The people of Blackburn voted on such issues as the closure of the Shadsworth House and Laneside homes for the elderly, Larkhill Flats, increases in councillors' allowances, massive increases in council tax, 'A'-boards, the closure of Church Street and the town centre, the filthy streets, the poor policing -- you could go on for ever -- but, most important of all the 'Secret Cabinet.'

The criterion for getting on this is to ask for nothing for your ward. While there is money to erect monstrosities like the Bank Top Urban Area signs, there is no money to erect a child's swing.

I wish Mill Hill's new representativeCouncillor Edmund Critchley, all the luck in the world. All he needs to do is actually represent the people who put their faith in him

SAM SPENCE, Ribblesdale Place, Blackburn.