WHEN are we going to have our pavements swept? The council spend a fortune on useless, expensive, atmosphere-polluting juggernauts that hold up traffic while making a pretence of sweeping the gutters.

This, while a workman flicks the odd larger piece of litter under the revolving brushes, leaving dust and broken glass on the pavement for the benefit of children and pets.

How many real roadsweepers (men with brush, shovel and dustcart, as in saner, pre-machine days) could be paid to do a proper job of the pavements for the cost of one of these monsters, with the initial cost, fuel, insurance, tax, maintenance and depreciation?

Isn't there anyone with the sense and courage to take a 'backward' step towards a return to sanity?

F BURNS, Livesey Branch Road, Blackburn.

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