DAVID ORFEUR'S and the unnamed letter on August 5 lamented the loss of Broomfield House which was described by one as "once the jewel of the area" -- precisely.

This is what so many borough residents have fought to reinstate.

The council's ''lack of resources'' rhetoric doesn't hold water in the light of its ''grey area'' of expenditure, particularly the colossal waste of money engineering the Whitbread sell-off through the various committees and so on during three years.

Mr Orfeur described two nearby Brewers Fayre venues in parks as the benchmark for a community "restoration" when the borough is awash with pubs and restaurants.

The salient points of objection (apart from the virtually illegal and immoral three-acre carve-up of a premier park) were wide and varied.

Because of their interest I am sure the two writers attended last Wednesday's public meeting (the third) at Broomfield School and would have heard the council's negative and obscure obstacles once again.

One speaker pointed out that to achieve anything the necessary willingness is paramount.

The community think-tank to be set up to rescue the house will hopefully not be stymied by the council's quest for speedy demolition and its search for another ''commercial partner'', which is already in motion.

Here we go again!

Once local authorities go unchallenged in plundering parks and the few remaining green and open spaces to allow the relentless developers a bigger foothold, what next?

JUNE RAPACIOLI,

Connaught Gardens,

Palmers Green.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.