IN response to your article (LET, December 6) about the shopping trip to the Trafford Centre in Manchester organised by our association, this was aimed to give people who cannot afford their own transport an opportunity to go on an affordable excursion.

People such as low-income families, one-parent families, the disabled and elderly often find it difficult to travel and gain the experience of visiting another town.

As for suggestions that they were taking trade away from Blackburn town centre, a coach party of local people on a limited budget going away for a few hours is not going to harm trade in Blackburn.

The issues highlighted by town centre traders -- roadworks, traffic problems, etc -- are not of our making and our neighbourhood centre users find it very offensive that they have been used as scapegoats to highlight these problems.

LYNN LEIGH, (Treasurer, Shadsworth Neighbourhood Association), Rothesay Road, Blackburn.