SIR: The BBC1 'Watchdog' programme this evening revealed how White Rose Environmental, a subsidiary of Yorkshire Water, avoided planning permission when they built their clinical waste incinerator at the Bolton General Hospital. Speaking on behalf of Bolton Council, Cllr Jack Foster claimed that the Council had no alternative but to let this abuse of planning permission go ahead, admitting that White Rose had "got away with it".

The truth is rather different. When the application was first made, Bolton Friends of the Earth alerted Bolton planning authorities about the likely breach of planning permission. The authorities took no notice of our warnings and it was only when over 3000 complaints were received from local residents that they finally issued an enforcement notice. By that stage it was too late. Bolton planners had already committed themselves to allowing the development to proceed.

In Bolton we have a Labour-controlled authority which is letting massive privatised corporations abuse the democratic process, while jumping on minor planning infringements by local people. Perhaps this is what they mean by 'New Labour'?

Even more importantly, what lessons will Bolton Metro learn from this fiasco when they deal with the Red Moss application? Which will they put first - the interests of local people and the environment, or the profits of big companies?

Dennis Watson, Bolton Friends of the Earth.

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