IT'S a pity Citizen Smith has joined the anti-western bypass bandwagon, along with your old 'sparring partner' Hilton Dawson.

But what really disappoints me (as someone who has been impressed by the Citizen's campaigns to tell local people the truth about Blobby etc) is that October 25's Citizen makes a blatantly untrue statement on the bypass issue.

You say 'everyone now seems to acknowledge' (that the Western bypass) 'is a dead parrot of a scheme.'

This is not true. Many local people I've spoken to recently still want the Western road, and want our elected representatives to keep on fighting for it.

Among local politicians still strongly supporting the Western option are Geraldine Smith MP, Morecambe Labour party and the Labour councillors on the local council.

You also 'have a go' at Labour county councillors and suggest that they should join the 'bypass bashers.'

This surprises me; in the past you've quite rightly criticised politicians who broke promises they made to voters at election time.

Why do you now say Labour's county councillors, elected on a manifesto strongly backing the 'western' -- should go against their clear pledge to voters?

I worked for County Cllrs Derrick Stanley and Albert Thornton in the in the election earlier this year.

I'm confident they'll keep their word to me and the other Morecambe supporters of the bypass who put our trust in them, despite the Citizen's advice to them to throw in the towel.

'The Western bypass in now dead,' says John Whitelegg. That is a bit of wishful thinking.

But the scheme can be a phoenix, dying just to rise again; not Monty Python's parrot!

Brian Ogston Morecambe