IN response to C Bakewell's accolade to Labour-controlled Blackburn Council's Operations Department (Letters, October 30), its "creditable" results may not be what they purport to be.

First, one should take into account that one is commencing with a given amount of money. So, to attain the desired target, one needs only to set that amount on one side and spend the rest - hence the result acquired.

Another question arises: would the council have achieved the £280,000 by which it is better off as a consequence, if the system governing this department had not been imposed by the government?

The trouble with this "in-house" Labour policy is that it is policed by other departments within the town hall, with the result that the pressure to provide a good service is not the same as that which an outside contractor would be subjected to.

Blackburn residents have to put up with ill-swept streets and badly maintained roads and footpaths while Labour's super efficiency is being proclaimed with the results of this department,

WALT MEADOWS, Whalley New Road, Blackburn.

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