WHEN I asked (Letters, July 1) people in Darwen to band together and go round their neighbourhood asking residents if they were happy with the way Blackburn Council has treated Darwen since it took over the town in 1974, I may have been a little over optimistic about the response that I expected.

Apart from friends who have tried to collect signatures, plus help from some traders in Darwen, I have had little other reaction.

As far as I know, I am the only person since Darwen was taken over who has tried to do something about it. In the end, we may not get anywhere, but at least we will have tried.

But I know that there is a lot of support for independence for Darwen -- because people have written to me and phoned and stopped me in the street, telling me so. But this does not get signatures on paper.

The people who could make this happen will not take Darweners seriously on this matter unless we provide a good number of names to back it up.

So, again, I am asking people to go round their area collecting names or to contact me with a view to forming a committee with the intention of doing as much as possible to press our point home.

It is important that we work fast so the committee is in place when people come back from their holidays.

There is also a petition form available to sign at Brenda's Antiques stall on Darwen's three-day market.

ROY DAVIES, 209 Olive Lane, Darwen. Tel 608214.