DARLINGTON cab driver Brian Foster is tickled pink about the redevelopment of Hartlepool and condemns his hometown in comparison (HAS, Aug 21).

The Middleton Grange shopping centre in Hartlepool may be slightly bigger than The Cornmill in Darlington, but our shopping centre is not full of bargain stores and has a wider range of goods on sale.

Darlington has a bigger population than Hartlepool, and one which tends to give its taxi drivers a good custom, yet this is the repayment we get from certain cab drivers who publicly put down our town in favour of a borough that voted in a man in a monkey costume as mayor.

If Mr Foster is so excited about Hartlepool and so disappointed in Darlington, maybe he should go and work there, where he would make a decent living by driving Hartlepudlians to Darlington, from where they could board a train for elsewhere.

Christopher Wardell, Darlington.