REGARDING your report (LET, March 3) on the Vicar of Whalley entering the May elections in the Ribble Valley, your reporter seemed to think that this is an earth-shattering event.

Jack Straw was incorrect in his remarks about me -- I was certainly not retired when I was elected to Blackburn Council in 1964.

I served on the county borough council from 1964 to 1971 and on the district council 1976-1997 -- 28 years in all.

I was Mayor in 1982-83 and was responsible for the return of the coat of arms, after the borough had been without one since local government reorganisation in 1974.

One other clergyman who was elected to the district council was the Vicar of St Peter's Church.

J WATSON, Everton, Roman Road, Blackburn.