CLLR Ball's support for the proposed development on the site of the former Atlantis night club (Letters, December 29) has prompted me to wonder how much time he has spent in the offices of Bolton at Home, listening to the steady procession of people trying to explain to the counter staff that they really were hoping they might be eligible for a house rather than a flat.

What Taylor Woodrow have applied to build on the site in question are flats - 184 of them - and the problem with flats (as many of the people living in Cllr Ball's ward will know), is that they are quite often difficult to sell or let, which is probably why there are so many of them standing empty around the town.

In view of the fact that there are so many empty flats in Bolton one wonders why Taylor Woodrow couldn't, in this instance, be persuaded to build houses. In fact, there might very well be an argument to say that there should be a complete moratorium on the building of flats in Bolton.

I don't understand the vagaries and politics of planning committees, planning applications, accreditation schemes, or the intricacies of Bolton Council's association with its business partners; but I do understand what it's like to be law abiding, hardworking and not particularly well-off.

Housing is, for more and more people, becoming an aspect of life over which they have little control.

I have friends and associates who live in very pleasant flats, situated in nice, quiet complexes, but unfortunately, due to their communal facets, blocks of flats can quite often become breeding grounds for social sicknesses such as drug culture and drug-related crime.

Cllr Ball's recently documented support for the building of yet another of the now numerous places of worship in Bolton, this time on land classified as open space, would seem to indicate him to be of a thoughtful persuasion. He might, therefore, spare a thought for those people who have spent years on the housing list to no avail, and those who would like to be afforded amenities such as a front door, a back door, and a bit of outside space.

Anthony Backhouse

Mossfield Court

Bolton