REGARDING the council's decision to remove a community bonfire in the Avallon Way Area of Darwen (LET, October 29), bonfires, especially those built by the local community, instil a community spirit.

They also provide a focal point for the November 5 festivities and somewhere for both parents and children alike to partake in the evening's entertainment.

I remember well the pride we felt as youngsters, creating our own annual bonfire.

Friends, relatives, neighbours and strangers were all made welcome.

Weeks of building and collecting preceded the big night.

Together, the youngsters of our neighbourhood worked together with the intention of creating a bigger bonfire than that of neighbouring 'tribes.'

My grandfather was always given the honour of lighting the fire. The adults provided and set off the majority of the fireworks.

Take this away and take it away in an arrogant manner, as the council has, and you are left with angry, disillusioned children and parents.

No focal point, no community spirit and nowhere for the local community to gather.

Children then turn renegade and set off fireworks in the streets, annoying all affected, not least the person who reported the 20-year-old bonfire site to the council.

We were all young once and must remember that bonfire night is, after all, only once per year.

We would do well to remember that rather than constantly blaming the children for all nuisance caused by fireworks, which admittedly can be annoying, it is the so-called responsible adult population that provide these youngsters with the fireworks in the first instance.

Communities should have provided for them a community space in which they can enjoy such traditions as bonfire night, May Day and such like.

COUN ROBIN EVANS, Mill Hill Ward, Blackburn Council.