KENT Brooks's Nostalgia article (Gazette, October 17) neatly differentiates between the powers and responsibility of "corporations" and the very different role of modern local government.

However, Kent's statement that party politics had no role in Kendal's government in the 1930s is not correct. While the majority of councillors sat as independents there were also Labour councillors elected both before and after this period.

This was not a case of excessive partisanship but a desire to ensure the whole town community was represented at town hall level.

Most independent councillors were businessmen able to afford the costs of election literature, while most working people were not.

Working people in the town's many industries, K Shoes in particular, who contributed so significantly to the town's economy, rightly demanded representation on the borough council, not least to contribute to the expansion and quality of the social housing being constructed throughout the town. Most served with great distinction.

Of the five general elections won by Conservative candidate William Fletcher-Vane, the Labour candidate was runner-up on three occasions and Liberal Geoffrey Acland on two.

Perhaps the best-known Labour candidate of this period was Paul Wilson, who later served as Lord Lieutenant of both Westmorland and Cumbria, and as a Labour member of the House of Lords.

John A Bateson

Oxenholme