LEGAL and arboricultural advice and hours of study have produced a thorough record of how the mature beech woodland in Egerton Quarry came to be displaced by a large house. I now have some hope Bolton Metro will stop claiming their innocence and 'vigorous enforcement' of the rules.

For the moment, replacement of lost amenity with proper enforced replanting and permanent protection on the site may be due to the wider community only. For myself, there is no acceptable substitute site for replanting. Trees planned or offered elsewhere remain a separate issue. Compensation can't consist in giving that to which there is already a right. Like refurbishment of the adjacent park.

When tinkering with framework of law occurs to enable business to use up the last 'family silver' of open land, or land with trees bought cheap, the partnership should be restructured. Areas which were once Green Belt and have remaining crumbs also have trees and narrow roads.

The 1998 Tree Preservation Order (TPO) Regulation proposals are very little better than the previous 1994 proposals said to be for 'streamlining' TPO. I have it on the best authority that the legal framework will be less workable and less effective. The proposals are not yet law.

Proposed changes in Leasehold Law next year will return social justice to people with expiring leases. Good luck to Londoners with short leases.

John Prescott, the northern Minister for the Environment must take responsibility for the change in TPO law which will lead to loss of social justice on the issue of land development. It will loosen restraint on the development of open spaces. His Brownfield sites are not enough for the new increased figure of five million houses by 2016. My understanding was that our population was stable. 1 According to Sunday Times November 22, Conservatives in West Sussex have refused in court to cope with finding space for an unreasonable 51,000 extra houses. Lib. Dem. Devon defiantly removed 7,000 from their quota.

Are northern Labour Councils going to roll over? With 140 houses from proposed Eagley Mill estate joining in traffic on Blackburn Road, Egerton will be as stranded in the rush hour as Bromley Cross is now because of Birtenshaw.

Cynthia Sandiford

Egerton Barn Cottage, Egerton, Bolton

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