I READ with interest your article (LET, February 18) about the row over the Mayor's Ball.

Having been a member of the Labour Party for longer than I care to remember, I fully sympathise with the Mayor's assertion that councils are run by a few, as opposed to many.

However, the point which I feel needs to be made is surely grown adults, i.e. councillors, should be able to put aside political differences for the sake of charity.

A dozen tickets at £15 each equals £180 lost - a large price for the charities to pay over something which boils down to nothing more than egotism gone mad and petty schoolboy in-fighting, something which is, unfortunately, too common in local government.

I and countless other people spent a good deal of our time telling the voters of the borough to give the council more power with unitary status. A bad decision, perhaps?

J E SHACKLETON, Reservoir Street, Darwen.

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