IN 1997 my Band D council tax was £83 per month. Now it is £132 per month, an increase of 59 per cent when inflation has been increased by 28 per cent in other words it should now be £106 per month.

How do pensioners and other fixed-income folk cope with this? Not very well.

The Labour Group has self-structured the decision-making process in such a way that their leader is playing with words when she says the opposition is not vociferous enough.

The Inner Cabinet decision-making process was clearly demonstrated earlier this year by the LET, and made a sorry reading to the cause of democracy.

To disprove this point, the Labour leader is invited to set out in the LET seven major Inner Cabinet decisions during the past 18 months which have been radically altered by opposition objections.

l In Darwen, the roads are shocking. The idea of repairing a road in Hoddlesden is a man who comes along with a wagon, shovels materials into the hole in the road, jumps on it, hits it with the flat shovel and goes away. This is true because I have seen it. This is adequate until it rains.

l In Darwen, at the Roman Road playing fields site, the facilities for young children are now less than before the makeover and this is after the building of a raft of new properties in Marsh House Lane.

l In Darwen, we have a superb new Health Centre. Whoever planned its present site, would he please step forward, because you need to be as fit as Imran Khan to walk the hill to it, and if you are feeling poorly, an oxygen mask is a must. Don't mention car parking.

l In Darwen, for years we have received the rump end of spending compared with the amount contributed in council tax.

If this is not so, prove it to us.

FRANK W HARROW, Carus Avenue, Hoddlesden, Darwen.