I FEEL I must respond to your comments on the role of Ofwat (LET, June 17) and your referral to our 'intimate' relationship with North West Water.

If you bothered to send a reporter to our public meetings you would know that this is far from the truth.

We, as the consumer representatives, work tirelessly to bring NWW into line on many issues, not the least of which are prices and NWW's totally unacceptable profits.

If you had bothered to check with any of the local members of the committee living in Burnley, Blackburn and Darwen, we would have been only too happy to give our views on what is happening with the Price Review at present.

Your inference over the shared market research is also widely inaccurate. NWW and the Customer Service Committee carried out this research independently of each other. It was common sense that we shared our findings. It proved that the research was effective when the shared results were almost identical.

The CSC were amazed when the Environment Agency managed to persuade the ministers responsible to include all environmental improvements in this present price review.

The impact on customers could be as much as £60 on the average domestic bill over the next five years. The North West CSC have responded forcibly by saying this is totally unacceptable, especially as we in the North West have a large proportion of the population that are either vulnerable or below the poverty line.

BRIAN LINFIELD, Member Ofwat, North West Customer Service Committee.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.