I WOULD like to take this opportunity to respond to the story on the front page of the Evesham Journal two weeks ago, which has now been picked up by the national press and TV.

In the article I am quoted as being on a fact-finding mission to observe the lap-dancing at the Railway Hotel with the Mayor of Evesham, who was involved in a fracas at a quite separate pub later on that same evening.

Although I was named in the report, your journalist did not have the courtesy to check the accuracy of his account with me before going to press, so let me put the record straight.

The Railway has been my local for the last 20 years. On the Saturday night in question I was having a drink with a few regulars, well away from the lap-dancing area. Mark Robinson and I had not arranged to meet up that evening and I was certainly not there in my official capacity as Town and District Councillor.

We did not arrive or leave together and I was not involved in the subsequent melee at the Royal Oak. So it is quite misleading to link my name with Councillor Robinson's when I was not present at the incident which led to his breaking his arm.

Thank you for giving me the chance to clarify the situation and place the facts of the matter on record.

MICHAEL WORRALL, Worcester Road, Evesham.