PERMISSION must be granted to Bolton Council for the continuation of all garden product sales at Heaton Fold Horticultural Centre.

The planning committee, at its meeting this month, must make its considerations in the light of the unique value of the centre as regards the training of its pupils and the opportunity for the wider community to support the wonderful work being done there.

Full marks to the BEN for its well balanced, not to mention colourful, article on this issue on June 27.

How local garden centres can complain of unfair competition, I cannot imagine. Yes, their settings are nowhere near as idyllic as Heaton Fold, I agree, with its summer flower meadow and its view across the Middlebrook valley to Deane Church, but do they exist to train and employ so many adults with learning difficulties? I think not.

There must be many readers who, like me, have experienced the delights of Heaton Fold Garden Centre and been treated so courteously and helpfully by the students there, always eager to carry heavy items to your car and to tell you just how precious the place is in their lives, including their new uniforms.

If you are one such reader, please add your voice in support of the planning permission for the Centre to continue in its present form.

Write to the Planning Committee at the Town Hall. Bolton would be a sadder place if we were to lose this precious pearl.

John Hampson

New Hall Lane

Bolton