IN the last paragraph of his letter (LET, April 13) Coun Ron O'Keeffe has fallen into the trap of thinking that in my recent letter I was criticising Blackburn as a place to live and work in; I was not.

I was simply criticising the exaggerated claim that as a tourist town Blackburn is more or less the best thing since sliced bread.

As one would expect Mr O'Keeffe cites the Cathedral as worthy of tourist interest, a building which is not the responsibility of the council but from which the council like to derive a great deal of kudos. Apart from the Cathedral there is not one feature mentioned by Mr O'Keeffe that is not matched or surpassed by other similar towns.

There is nothing negative about telling the truth and stating the facts.

I could easily have chosen, say, York with which to compare Blackburn. After all, it is in the North and has roughly the same population, but this would have seemed unfair to Blackburn. Instead I chose Preston because it is nearby, roughly the same size and has a similar history as a mill town. I believe that Preston has a Labour-controlled council so, in answer to Mr O'Keeffe's question, I am not anti-Labour. As stated in my letter, I am not a member of any political party.

Corporation Park is attractive and deserves restoration but do the 4,100 daily tourists that Coun Andy Kay would have us believe come to Blackburn all immediately flock to the park because of its world, national or regional fame? I don't think so. I certainly haven't seen vast crowds milling there on a daily basis. Creating a few fountains centrally and tidying up the park, laudable as these things may or may not be, do not automatically turn the town into a major tourist attraction.

One agrees with Mr O'Keeffe that what is needed are people of vision. Yes, criticism is easy and comparisons can be odious, but if they are serious about tourism Mr O'Keeffe and his colleagues need to compare Blackburn with successful tourist towns and attractions to see what they have that Blackburn hasn't. Some things would be impossible to remedy, such as a large river or the seaside, but there are enough other things that can be addressed. At the present stage of things one should try to answer this question honestly: as an average tourist would you like to spend your hard-earned annual holiday in Blackburn with Darwen in preference to a host of other towns and cities in the UK?

As a starting point could I suggest that Mr O'Keeffe's committee decides on a clear picture of their tourism aims (e.g. weekend breaks, coach day-trippers, rail day-out, conferences)?

DAVID SMALLEY, Branch Road, Mellor Brook.