I WELCOME wholeheartedly the proposal to create a sport and leisure village along with an Aldi and a restaurant etc on the site currently occupied by the Holland garden centre.

Naturally this will incur the wrath of the minority who are intent on the preservation of the Ashworth covenant.

Society at the time of the lodging of the covenant was vastly different to contemporary society, and I believe that land cannot realistically, in this day and age, be held unused in ‘perpetuity’ especially as no descendants of the Ashworths now own it.

Cllr Greenhalgh has indicated that there may be green belt issues. We must expect the usual objections concerning the welfare of wildlife that will perhaps need to find alternative accommodation.

This development will put the land to much better use for the local community as well as providing much needed jobs.

We must hope that the planning department will give due consideration to the application and not be unduly influenced by the inevitable ‘anti’ element.

Please give the green light to this excellent proposal and give Bromley Cross a boost.

Frank Holstead Egerton