I WAS saddened to read of the Test Valley Disability Forum seems to be in the middle of a political argument.

They should be dealing with the problems of the disabled not worrying whether the chairman is red, blue or green.

I was involved in disability issues for many years. From its inception in the Year of the Disabled in 1981 I served as an officer of the borough council on the Andover Action Committee for the Disabled (AACD) together with a councillor representative. When I retired in 1993 I continued on the AACD for many more years. I recall that one of the early chairmen was a resident of the Enham Trust and we always had the full support of the council.

We were able to resolve many individual problems and I think two major successes were to persuade the county council, when rural surfaced footways were low in their priorities, to provide one linking Enham Alamein to Andover (it may not have been used a lot but it gave the disabled the knowledge they could travel to Andover in safety). The second success was the provision of Andover Shopmobility, now an accepted well used facility.

I had not heard of the Test Valley Disability Forum until your news item appeared. Could they tell us what they do, what help or advice they provide, who the members represent, and does it include one from the Andover Town Council who represent about 40 per cent of the TVBC population.

John Barrell, Weyhill Road, Andover