I WRITE in answer to Mr B Corbett of Lower Darwen (LET, July 31) who asked who was responsible for the traffic mess in Blackburn.

I can only tell him of the time when we could have had a proper orbital road, but were frustrated by a set of unfortunate circumstances.

It was 1977 when the then ruling party had the plans for a ring road ready. It had been prepared by the then Borough Engineer and his staff.

I, at the time, was Labour Party spokesman on highway matters. Unfortunately for us, we took a heavy defeat in the '77 municipal election. We lost eight seats out of nine we were defending, one of which was mine.

However I was lucky enough to fight a by-election for the same seat, about two months later, which brought the Labour Party level with the rest.

The vote on the road was held and predictably was a tie. The Mayor, Mrs H Lewis (Con), voted with the 'nos'.

The project was dead in the water, and the favourable terms re Government grant were withdrawn never to be repeated.

Who do we blame? The Mayor for using her casting vote under the instructions of the Tory leader, or he himself for taking the point of view he did.

No, neither can be blamed, they only acted like Tories do, reactionary to the last.

The blame must be laid at the feet of the Liberal Party then led by Frank Beetham, now deceased, who in their avid pursuit of even a modicum of power, sunk their principles and sided with the Tories just as they were prepared to do this year.

I do not honestly know if our plan was bold enough to solve the problem, but I do know that it would, as all orbital routes do, not have gone through the town centre.

I can only surmise that why the original plan was not brought back into the reckoning, when the Labour Party lost power again, was that the circumstances that applied then had made the scheme financially unviable.

Ex-Councillor (name and address supplied).