ON the evening of March 15, I attended a public meeting at Bolton Parish Hall, where an action plan to combat street prostitution, prepared jointly by Bolton Council and Greater Manchester Police, was to be presented.

Information about this meeting was given by an unknown number of letters delivered on a random basis around The Haulgh and Great Lever two days earlier.

No copies of the action plan were available at the meeting, but a five-point summary was displayed on a flip chart.

Those members of the public who knew about the meeting, and were present, reacted to the explanation of the plan with uniform hostility.

Despite this, they were informed by the council representative that public views had already been incorporated, presumably by some telepathic process, and that the plan, as drafted, had already been submitted to the relevant executive member for approval.

Some of those who attended thought the meeting was a cynical charade, so that the council could say that they had consulted the public before doing what they intended to do anyway.

They pointed to the short notice of the meeting, the arbitrary selection of invitees, and the lack of detailed information generally. The alternative explanation is that it was sheer incompetence.

Would someone from Bolton Council like to tell the public which it was?

Douglas Summers Castle Street The Haulgh Bolton