[Ken Moss]

I'm not denying that there are problems in Rishton, it was the whole point of me standing for election in May, but I'm afraid the problems you detail cannot be simply swept away at the stroke of a pen.

We'll start with The Roebuck - whatever may go on behind those doors, they do at least keep their house in order. The police are well aware of the drug problem in Rishton and have shut down dozens of drugs dens in the past two years so if the pub is as big a crackhouse as you seem to be implying then it will only be a matter of time. I run the quiz night there and have not seen anything going on which I would consider to be either illegal or antisocial.

Underage drinking on Cutwood Park has now been drastically reduced thanks to the efforts of the local bobbies (seemingly invisible to you).

The Spring Street derelicts have, thanks to persistence from myself and Cllr Grayson among others, now had a final order on them to be renovated by mid-August. Whilst this looks unlikely to happen there is a fallback plan which HBC will implement to sort the area out within a matter of months. It is a particular bugbear of mine as I have to look at it every day.

The canal is dredged by British Waterways three times a year and has just had a cleanup. They are also very quick to respond whenever we call in an instance of fly-tipping.

Planning applications for conversion from retail into residential accommodation is rarely turned down, in fact two of the old council buildings on Blackburn Road were passed with no problem only this year.

The flower towers are something of a sore point with both myself and Cllr Grayson as I agree that Rishton is not a market town and the project is a vast waste of money when we have local groups such as Prospects doing better work with a fraction of the money. I want to see the project scrapped and the money spent in a more positive way or simply not spent at all. If you don't like that then complain to Peter Britcliffe at HBC, it was his decision to cut our funding by £2,500 this year to fund the floral market town project.

Cllr Grayson and I are also reviewing the Christmas trees situation in terms of economies and there will be several reorganisations of the town's meagre funds pot this year. We were given just £12k to improve Rishton from May 2010 to April 2011.

I'm not disagreeing about any of the empty factories either but that does rather rely on private investment which Harry Grayson has been trying to tempt into the village for years.

Much as I can sympathise with your point of view, you still seem to harbour under the misapprehension that councillors have more powers than they actually do. We frequently disagree with HBC policy as well, particularly since it is Peter Britcliffe who hoards most of the money for his own projects. Vast tracts of money are wasted in an effort to get himself into the papers with a popular story and if I were treasurer of Hyndburn then half of what is spent by that man would be cut at a stroke.

The title 'Councillor' seemingly sticks in your craw but as a resident of Rishton I assure you that I am on your side.