MAY I congratulate the residents of Station Road, Blackrod, and in particular Mrs Eileen Jackson for the brilliant campaign in bringing to a halt an application to site a Coal Washing and Distribution Centre near to their houses.

In addition, also helping us all by drawing attention to the problem of coal dust circulating around the village, which further increased opposition to the plan. It will have taken a lot of effort, but, hopefully it has paid off.

What I cannot understand, is why (I am informed), Blackrod Town Council took the initial decision to approve the planning application and allegedly giving as a reason that they had not realised there would be opposition to the application.

Had it not been for the residents' campaign, would the Town Council have done anything about it?

On a further point, I am still concerned about the weight of traffic that the bridge over the railway line has to accommodate. Some of the trucks already going down Station Road could well be above the tonnage that the bridge was designed for.

Has a recent inspection of the bridge taken place? And, if so, can Bolton Planners inform us what, in their opinion, is the maximum weight that the bridge can be reasonably expected to cope with over a protracted time period.

Perhaps they ought to ask Railtrack their opinion, they have enough experts dealing with unexpected problems!

Ian Hamilton

Lymbridge Drive, Blackrod, Bolton