THE recent announcement that the Labour Party is to hold its annual October conference in Manchester may be welcomed by many Labour Party activists in the city, but the news is likely to be bad for the long-suffering taxpayers of this and the other Greater Manchester boroughs.

Only approximately half of the estimated £1 million cost of policing the Labour Party's Spring 2004 conference was met by central government, which begs the question: is only 50 per cent of the cost of the main autumn conference going to be met by the Home Office too?

With GMP already facing huge budget pressures that threaten to take police off our streets, it is imperative that Labour commit to funding their October conference in full.

ALEX WILLIAMS,

Conservative Prospective

Parliamentary candidate

for Bury South.