WHEN George Brown legitimately complains -- among other things -- about the lack of any toilets serving Farnworth Park -- it ill becomes Christine Adams to boast: "I have constantly complained about the matters which G Brown has mentioned" (BEN, Aug 22).

It was Christine Adams, as prospective Conservative council candidate, and Nicholas Wood-Dow, as Conservative general election candidate, who secured the demolition of the Market Street toilets in a most scurrilous anti-gay campaign based entirely upon lies and misrepresentation in which gay men were portrayed as both child abusers and flashers.

The two of them were photographed outside the toilets in a manoeuvre apparently designed to facilitate his accession to Parliament and her election to Bolton Council -- an honour which they were denied and a fate which we were spared.

They claimed to have visited local residents, by whom they were told a young girl had been asked to lift up her skirt by one man, another had been harassed by two men and two young boys on bicycles were stopped and invited into a car.

They were told youngsters at a bus stop had been "eyed" by men and a woman walking a dog in the park was stopped by a man who exposed himself

None of this took place in the toilet and none of it was remotely connected to what gay men get up to.

Nobody had been propositioned and no gay indecencies had been witnessed.

Councillor Devlin pointed out in your pages at the time that there had been no complaints about the toilets either to him or to the Town Hall, but this didn't stop Wood-Dow claiming: "This toilet, in a central location beside the park and opposite the library, is left open for exploitation by homosexuals who are threatening children's safety."

Nor did it stop Mrs Adams maintaining: "If children are getting off a bus or walking home from school, they are prime targets for abuse."

It is only due to good luck and the general level-headedness of Farnworth folk that this rabble-rousing did not degenerate into vigilante action.

I don't expect any sign of regret from either of them but, as far as lack of facilities in Farnworth Park go, a period of silence from Mrs Adams would be both welcome and appropriate.

Meanwhile, we are told only this month that William Hague is dismayed that his party is perceived as being anti-gay.

He will be almost alone in being surprised that these particular chickens are now coming home to roost.

Allan Horsfall

President

Campaign for Homosexual Equality

London