LABOUR'S Bolton West candidate Julie Hilling asks in the Bolton News ''where is proper funding to really deal with our congested trains and roads including a Westhoughton by-pass?''

It is astonishing that someone who was MP for Bolton West for five years and who represents a party that was in government for 13 years, has the audacity to raise this issue considering both her own and her party's record of inactivity in investing in our local transport network.

In complete contrast, the largest ever investment in Bolton's rail network is rapidly approaching completion — thanks to our Conservative government.

As for the Westhoughton by-pass, which thanks to former Bolton West Conservative MP Chris Green has been included in the North West future roads programme — which positively contrasts with the decades of inactivity of local Labour politicians.

Bolton Labour colleague and Cabinet Member for Transport, councillor Chadwick commented at the time of the announcement of the by-pass in that the news was ..''pie in the sky'' — yet soon after, Bolton's Labour Council astonishingly announced that they now backed a by-pass for Westhoughton, except that unlike Chris Green's 'real' by-pass, it would be one that served developments in the 'Green Belt' thanks to Labour's Greater Manchester Strategic Framework plans.

It is the Conservatives that are investing in Bolton's transport network.

Derek Bullock

Leigh Road

Westhoughton