THE Northern Echo reported on May 30 that 800 tickets will be available for the Olympic Torch event, in Durham Market Place, on Sunday June 17.

Unfortunately, the tickets were released on the same day. Even if I had read the paper that morning I would still have been unable to get one as I work in Newcastle.

Why weren’t the tickets released on a weekend or later in the day to give more people a chance of getting one? Even a bit more warning would have helped to allow people to try and arrange for a friend or relative to pick up tickets.

Well done to Simon Henig and Durham County Council for discriminating against anyone with a job when setting the release time.

John Watson, Durham.