"NO One Cares" -- as stated by your un-named correspondent (Your Views, March 26) may be a personal view, but certainly does not reflect the amount of 'community concern' currently evidenced by the establishment of six residents/tenants associations during the past year in the Tonge district.

I have always believed that the elected Member is only part of a team and the really important fact is the degree to which the community members support and get involved in local issues.

The past year has seen £58,000 allocated to local projects in Tonge; we have started to organise our 'topic groups' to develop schemes that will be financed by the multi-million SRB6 project. Tonge Park is being redeveloped and, most importantly, these three activities are 'resident'-controlled.

At Tonge Moor Primary School, voluntary unpaid School Governors are deciding on a £500,000 modernisation programme; the community will be consulted on the redevelopment of the De Lacy Drive area; the Castle Hill PFI will provide a new School, a new Library, a new Youth Club and Community facilities for the different age groups and interests in the Tonge district and, again, the community is involved right at the start.

In Tonge Fold the residents association, supported by the SRB4 Family Learning Centre which is situated in the shopping area, are working to convert the disused tennis courts to provide Youth Club facilities, and residents on the Eastfield Estate are converting two houses into a community centre.

Yes, we still have many problem issues to address, but, to do this effectively, we all need to work together and stop this national pastime of always wanting to apportion blame.

As an Elected Councillor for Tonge on and off since 1963, I have shared many of the frustrations that your correspondent expressed; I have supported the redevelopment of other areas because I believed their need was greater; but now the pendulum has swung and the Tonge area is on the verge of the largest regeneration programme since the building of the housing estates in the 1920s.

The most satisfying point for me is not that I may have played a part, but that so many of my neighbours in Tonge are getting involved to help share their future; there is room for more!

Frank White, Tonge Ward

Ashdown Drive, Bolton