I WRITE in response to the letter from Mrs M Clarke, of Chorley Road, Westhoughton, regarding the proposed Go Ape site in Rivington.

Firstly, Mrs Clarke seems to assume that because she “walks in Rivington” everyday, that this somehow gives her more say than the next man.

Some of us and our families have been visiting Rivington for generations upon generations and still revel in tales from our great grandparents of the great days they spent up there. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, and the amount of time you spend there doesn’t make you more qualified to hold that option.

Secondly, Go Ape is not a theme park as it keeps being quoted. This is scaremongering by Mrs Clarke and her like.

They are trying to portray Go Ape and its like with Alton Towers or Camelot. It is an adventure course, made from materials which blend in well with the surroundings and which needs an awful lot of energy and exhuberence to complete.

Mrs Clarke, like others, goes on to say that Lord Leverhulme left this for us and future generations. Indeed he did — he left the land for generations to enjoy and for them to have leisure time — exactly catered for by Go Ape and similar developments.

As a man who clearly thought outside the box, I am sure he would have been more than delighted to welcome such an activity to encourage people to the area and to take part in rigorous physical exercise.

Finally, but by no means least, she suggests that Eddie Birchall, youth worker, takes his youths elsewhere — my question — who died and put her in charge of who can and who cant enjoy Rivington? Its that kind of attitude that makes Mr Birchall’s job ever harder day by day.

Maybe, just maybe, Mrs Clarke wants Rivington simply for the snobs?

Kathy Gilfillan, Pinfold Close, Westhoughton