THE attack on the Mayor of Horwich is nothing but party political points scoring by Labour and it has no place at town council level, or any level.

It was quite clear to everybody at the meeting to see exactly the point the Mayor was making — he was not being literal about building on Bolton's parks!

Horwich is carrying Bolton on (among other things) its housing allocations, there has been little to no infrastructure improvements in Horwich since Bolton took over in 1974.

Since then, one of the most successful retail parks in the country has been built in Horwich, including a 27,000 capacity football stadium, with no added infrastructure in the town.

All the extra traffic to and from Middlebrook Retail Park uses the same existing roads and junctions in the rest of the area, via De Havilland Way and either the Beehive, or M61 J6, added to that is all the additional residents from new houses and the loss of green spaces as result of new builds.

The roads and the town simply cannot cope with any more!

There should be no more housing in Horwich, especially on green field sites, until key infrastructure is installed, not least a link road from Horwich Loco Works to Middlebrook, which it is important to note there is still no confirmed funding for and no party in Bolton has committed to fund from Bolton Council's reserves, should Government funding not be forthcoming!

If there is no funding, what happens to the Loco Works/Rivington Chase development then?

Will it cease building, placing the borough further behind its allocations, increasing the chances of more of our green spaces being taken for development, or will traffic will be routed onto an already at capacity Chorley New Road?

It's lose, lose for Horwich!

Cllr Rock's off-the-cuff comments reflect how many Horwichers feel towards Bolton.

Horwich is treated as a cash cow, it is time for the rest of the borough to take up its fair share and also provide Horwich with the infrastructure it needs, which is basically what Cllr Rock was saying.

Cllr Steven Chadwick

Lever Park

Horwich