RECOGNISING shopping as a necessary evil, I voted in favour of extending the disc parking scheme in Accrington town centre to three hours.

It was interesting to see that Tory opinion to disc parking seems to have undergone something of a U-turn. It seems like only yesterday that former Tory candidates were hailing Accrington's free parking as the death-knell for shopkeepers.

Dispite this absurd negative stance, Hyndburn Council persisted with the view that the general public might prefer not to have to pay for the privilege of shopping in the borough and did a public consultation exercise to make a great scheme even better. Tory group leader Coun Peter Britcliffe made an interesting Freudian slip at the full council meeting last week, when suggesting a change to the way representations were made to council committees. He said that, in future, when he was the leader of Hyndburn Council, things would be run differently.

Since he cannot be an MP and a councillor simultaneously, it would appear that Mr Britcliffe is already resigned to defeat at the forthcoming general election.

COUN TIM O'KANE, Charles Street, Clayton-Le-Moors.

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