COUNCILLOR David Smith (Letters, December 16) says Darwen gets £37million every year. So how is it that all council departments have the same warcry -- "We have no money?"

Then in January and February they realise they have loads of cash to spend on ridiculous projects like the £20,000 dogs' toilets on Richmond Terrace, or the twin flight of stone steps and footpath off Dove Lane, running parallel to the finest footpath in town.

Why not repair the public paths in Grimshaw Street and Carr Road and Turncroft Road and Pole Lane or provide more public toilets, of which there is now one in the town centre?

I often wonder how postmen, milkmen, window cleaners etc., cope with a call to nature. Darwen once had at least 10 public toilets and four urinals.

And why were the 'musical' self-cleaning toilets removed from Darwen and Blackburn, each one costing £70,000 to install?

FRANK CROMPTON, Lightbown Street, Darwen.