SIR: Tom Sackville's reaction to the local election results (reported in BEN on May 3) is astonishing. To say the evening was 'far from a disaster' and 'an encouraging base for the General Election' is to totally misunderstand what happened.

In the 'new' Bolton West that he will have to defend, the Conservative party finished a very poor third, well behind both Labour and the Liberal Democrats. The number of Conservative councillors in the constituency is now half the number of Liberal Democrat councillors.

On the evidence of these elections (which confirm the trends over several years), Mr Sackville will soon be spending even more of his time in Sussex. Before he goes, perhaps he would like to join his erstwhile colleague Peter Thurnham in advising electors to vote for the Liberal Democrats, who are proving themselves to be the only real opposition to Labour in Bolton?

Roger G C Hayes,

Smithills Dean Road,

Bolton.

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