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“Were Reform to capture the council … the Preston model might quickly unravel,” writes Andy Beckett (The UK’s radical ‘Preston model’ faces an uncertain future with local elections looming, 20 April). He is worrying unnecessarily. Reform UK at present has just one seat on Preston city council. Councillors are elected by thirds, meaning 16 of the 48 seats – including the one held by Reform – are up for grabs in May. So in theory Reform could win 16 seats, which would hardly constitute capturing the council. One election prediction website I have consulted tips Reform to win just two Preston seats.
Gerrard Raven
Teddington, London

• Preston is not the only northern town that has been significantly improved by an effective Labour council. My Barnsley-born husband and I found that town transformed when we visited a few days ago, not just by the new health hub you reported on last week, but by thoughtful regeneration. The town centre is modernised; the legendary market is alive and well. Last Saturday, Reform UK was canvassing in the town centre, but there was no sign of a Labour stall to remind people who had done these changes. I hope that local people celebrate the value of these real achievements and do not flip to Reform, which would be a slap in the face of the councillors who have worked so hard to make Barnsley a better place over many years. A good news story at last.
Misia Newsome
Oxford

• For all the sights of the “Preston model” – the bustling streets, well-maintained public buildings and public spaces – seen by Andy Beckett, it’s a shame he didn’t make a short detour to a significant site of Preston’s radical heritage. Despite the fact that that city’s Harris museum took delivery earlier this month of a bronze statue commemorating the suffragette Edith Rigby, the house in Winckley Square where she lived and built the homemade bombs that she deployed in the campaign for votes for women is in a shameful state of boarded-up dereliction.

To be fair, the city council recently served an urgent works notice on the owners of the Grade II-listed property, but the house – with its resonant, graffitied wail that “Edith deserves better than this!” – speaks more loudly than any bronze memorial in a newly restored neoclassical gallery. Edith does deserve better. The proud radical history of the people of Preston deserves better.
Austen Lynch
Garstang, Lancashire

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