I WONDER if readers would want to have their parks or their children's playgrounds built on by industry?

I can almost hear you saying: ‘They can’t do this.’ Well, think again. There is a Bill going through parliament called ‘The infrastructure HL2014-15 Bill’. This bill will enable the Government to transfer all public land to a private a company they are setting up. This company will be able to sell the land to anybody who wants to buy it.

This means that developers will be able to move into national parks and allotments, children’s playgrounds or any other public land, and local authorities will not be able to stop it.

The Government is closing the Land Registry Office which has an overview of all land in this country.

The Chancellor, George Osborne, says that this bill is essential because the economy is still in a bad way. Special measures are needed and it will boost the economy by £2.5 billion, but at what price to us? That is incalculable.

This bill of course does not cover the land owned by the Crown (the Queen’s estates) which will remain intact and of course the landed gentry are not covered by this act. There will be no fracking on their land, only on land owned by us, the general public, which is roughly one third of all land in this country.

You may be asking why you have not heard anything about this bill. I can’t see our Labour Council or the Labour Party jumping up to complain about the enormous power taken.

I haven’t seen anything on the television or the radio about this; national newspapers are not running a campaign; I wonder why? Quite simply they are the Establishment and their job is to keep you amused, not to keep you informed, but to keep you in the dark.

So all the protection and all the rights built up from the Magna Carta onwards are to be swept away without any debates, and none of the parties seem to care, or should I say they're actually in favour of it because they all want to keep well in with the city and big business who stand to make a fortune if this bill goes ahead.

Of course it’s only the common man who will suffer and we all know he does not count. But then again the common man does not object. So come on people of Bolton, demand better from your councillors and your MPs!

Demand that these things are discussed publicly before this bill gets on to the statute books because as the saying goes ‘When it's gone, it's gone’ and we will never, ever get it back. It would seem that all political parties are determined to make serfs out of all of us.

Let's defeat this bill now! Together we can! Unity is strength!

Ian Greenhalgh Smithills Bolton