[garinda]

In response to a letter in this week's Observer, I felt compelled to write to the paper for the first time since 1981.

Here is a copy, in the event of it not being published.

Dear Sir,
In reply to last week’s letter from John Farrer regarding our M.P. Greg Pope ‘ at last moving into the 21st century’.
As well as the surgeries held throughout Hyndburn, Greg is also easily accessible through other twenty first century technologies. There’s his office in Accrington, the old fashioned telephone, and lastly his website, all of which make him easily available for help and advice at any time.
Only this week on Accrington Web, a much used local internet forum, someone had a problem with a passport. All of a sudden up popped Greg with his office telephone number and an offer of help. Graham Jones the leader of the Labour Group on Hyndburn Borough Council, also uses this facility to communicate with residents of the borough. Sadly Mr. Farrer’s close friend Peter Britcliffe, or any other Tory councillor hasn’t felt the need to reach people of Hyndburn this way, although Mr. Farrer himself is a member of Accrington Web.
I find it quite ironic that Mr Farrer felt compelled to write about our M.P. embracing modern technology, especially as Hyndburn Borough Council recently saw fit to squander £600,000 on the now defunct website Hyndburn Life, which in more prudent and imaginative hands, could have been a valuable resource for us all to be kept informed of matters of importance and of interest in Hyndburn.