SIR: Can I put the record straight over comments in the BEN and in the Your views page over what was supposedly inferred at a recent planning meeting.

I have never accused anyone of racism over this issue.

As I explained to your reporter when she rang me at home after the meeting, I was not accusing the residents of racism, and this fact was included in your story.

My point was that I did not think that the planning arguments put forward against the scheme were very sound and in fact your story included a quote from me explaining my comments and my reasons more fully but no-one seems to have read that part of the story. The "hidden reason" I referred to was their prejudice against an Indian restaurant/take-away.

In my time as Mayor, I invested a lot of time in hopefully encouraging more understanding among the races and I felt a lot was achieved. I'm certainly not going to throw away all that work and progress. My hope for better race relations in the future was a key part of the speech at my inauguration. I sincerely believe it is a way forward and did my best to promote genuine understanding between people.

Cllr C Benjamin OBE

Roscow Avenue, Breightmet

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