SIR: I have been following in your columns the letters concerning the proposed development of Singing Clough in Kearsley.

Reading the latest exchanges between Mr Collison and the local councillors, I can't help wondering if I am losing the plot.

Now, come on guys and gals, let's re-focus on the facts, or the rest of us will lose interest and stop reading. As I recall, the issue is about an access road to the Lyon Industrial Estate which, inexplicably, according to Bolton Council, cannot be built without another industrial estate being dumped on Singing Clough.

Most people would agree that an access road to the Lyon Estate is essential in order to take heavy traffic off Pilkington and Springfield Roads - in truth the Lyon Estate should never have been built without such a road having been included in the planning.

Kearsley does not need another industrial development on Singing Clough. There are two in close proximity already. Bolton Council seem hell bent on filling Kearsley with industrial developments. Any planner worth his salt will advise that residential areas need adequate open space and satisfactory provision of local amenities. Without these, we soon see the kind of urban problems which plague many of the inner city areas.

It is difficult to see where the local elected representatives stand on the issue. They may do well to ask themselves whether they are effectively representing the best interests of the residents they were elected to serve.

E F Cummings

Hazlemere, Kearsley?

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.