IN a shameless attempt to use your pages to do something no doubt better done in person, I wanted to thank everyone who voted for me in last week s Hampstead by-election, as well as those who voted for one of the other three main parties. I hope the hatef

IN a shameless attempt to use your pages to do something no doubt better done in person, I wanted to thank everyone who voted for me in last week's Hampstead by-election, as well as those who voted for one of the other three main parties. I hope the hateful BNP got the message to get out of Hampstead and never come back.

I wanted also to congratulate Linda Chung as she takes her place alongside Kirsty Roberts and Chris Knight who are already working so hard for our community. Linda will, I know, forgive me, if I wish her a short tenure on the council.

The four candidates from the main parties have enjoyed good relations and have grown to like and respect one another despite our differences. We have fought to represent a very special place and we all want to keep it that way.

Readers may therefore be interested to learn that Labour's Larraine Revah and I have already suggested meeting Linda to chat about the issues facing Hampstead today. We hope Anya Reeve of the Green Party can join us.

So now the by-election machine moves to Kentish Town. Hampstead residents can breathe a sigh of relief that their evenings will be undisturbed by the door knocking of canvassers; their weekend streets left uncluttered by our stalls; their recycling bins unfilled by our leaflets. During by-election time Arizona is not, perhaps, such a dismal prospect after all.

Stephen Phillips

Wedderburn Road, NW3