SIR: I feel I must point out again my disappointment at your decision to alter the format of the Readers Letters page.

I urge you to please have a look at it again.

It lacks impact. I felt that, until you altered it, it was the very heart of the paper and the very voice of Bolton.

It always held one's interest with the opinion column and its interesting observations on the left column. The 'feature' letter, with its bold headline, was always a must to read and the poem, in its neatly boxed-off little corner, looked just right. You have completely ruined it.

Everyone I have spoken to, and that is a considerably large number of people, is in full agreement with me. (Unusual!)

Now, come on, take another look at this. We all make mistakes, I grant you, but this is ridiculous. The page at present is just a bland, nondescript mish-mash. Look at it!

The views on the left on some meaningless subject are an insult to the readers' intelligence. Call that a worthy replacement for the opinion column? You must be joking.

The letters are too plentiful. Before, we had quality, not quantity. Just read the letters you're printing now. They are boring!

As for the poem, it just blends in with all the letters - not proudly standing out in its corner box as it used to do. Believe me, I write this as a Boltonian and a sincere reader of the BEN.

Do you really seriously and honestly think you have improved the paper by these diabolical alterations? Why didn't you leave well alone. Put the page back as it was.

Graham Baxter

Bromwich Street, Bolton

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