CAN one assume that Councillor Danczuk is after the Waffler of the Year award?

I am afraid I didn't read the Labour Government's consultation paper on people sleeping rough and I doubt the people sleeping rough will have read it either, although it may have come in handy as a pillow.

As an ordinary, rational thinking person, it seems logical to me to put the homeless into homes -- empty homes the council would soon see rot.

It seems to me the first thing a person without a roof needs is a roof and an address so he can enter the benefit system.

Everything starts from that point. The council decided, because of yet another instruction from New Labour, that it could be on to a nice little earner and get the begging bowl out again.

If, as the council say, it is not a serious issue in Blackburn, let the money go to one of the cardboard cities where it's needed and let Blackburn Council begin the task of filling the hundreds of boarded-up council homes.

SAM SPENCE, Ribblesdale Place, Blackburn.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.