THE election must only be a few months away, as the Bolton NE Conservative Party has been hand delivering "In Touch" to all households, the first local newsletter in 12 months, informing us of what exactly?

The front page is devoted to the ongoing saga of the proposed redevelopment of the entire remaining green belt land at and behind the closed Hollands Garden Centre in lower Bromely Cross. The newsletter is embarrassingly out-of-touch over latest events and you do wonder how much effort ward councillors make during the year to get around their ward.

We are informed that no planning application has been submitted for the planned giant sports and retail park in the green belt. Also that work on the pitches will not be able to start until the retail park is approved as this will produce the income to fund the pitches.

The truth is known to local residents and that is that for many months now there has been extensive earthworks and hundreds of lorry movements onto the green belt, with what is thought to be the foundations for the sports pitches being carried out. Residents were assured by the developer that this would not happen until the entire scheme was approved, but there appears to be a change of strategy — unless the developer wishes to correct this assumption through The Bolton News?

It is assumed that the pitches element of the scheme, costing perhaps over two million pounds, is authorised by the 2007 and 2010 planning permissions granted and it may be that there will be no need for another planning application for residents to take a view on. In the meantime, councillors should do a little homework before putting out newsletters that are badly written and only serve local Tory Party interests.

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