HOW ironic that Newton Aycliffe's "town centre" became the focus of campaigning to elect Sedgefield's new MP.

It was the first new town centre to be sold to private landlords, The Grainger Trust, in 1983-84.

Strenuous local efforts to prevent that were dismissed out-of-hand by the Tory government.

The "town centre" of Newton Aycliffe is privately-owned commercial property - a fact not mentioned by politicians who called maximum adverse publicity to the "state of it".

But, with the Labour Party having had it's head up its own rump in Trimdon for ten years, Aycliffe's needs and priorities could hardly be appreciated from such a restricted viewpoint.

They deserve to be castigated for that. But the aspiring progressively-minded township of Newton Aycliffe should not be condemned by association with a 23-year-old Tory party sellout.

D Fraser, Newton Aycliffe, Co Durham.