MAY we thank you on behalf of the Branch and the Hyndburn District Group of CPRE for your efforts in bringing the Huncoat development proposals to the attention of your readers.

We should mention that Hyndburn District Group was formed recently, based in the Huncoat area, but actually serves the whole of the borough. We wouldn't wish you or your readers to gain the impression that we are a one-trick pony.

Your reports accurately reflect the massive concerns of Hyndburn residents, who fear that the plans to place a waste treatment plant on ten hectares of Huncoat are already a done deal.

Whilst CPRE supports the effective recycling and treatment of waste, we are also concerned that such schemes be sited in appropriate locations.

A similar development in Chorley has been sited away from the public gaze in an industrial area; surely a place more appropriate to its function.

You rightly describe the proposed site as having been formerly occupied by a power station.

However, you should also have said that this building was largely demolished many years ago. The remaining land will certainly need to be used for development of some kind, but is it fair to place a waste treatment plant there just because the site was unattractive before?

Surely it is sufficient that residents have to bear the traffic, smell and other disturbance associated with the Whinney Hill landfill site, without dumping more rubbish on them.

The proposed site has no convenient access and would require the construction of a long stretch of road across Greenbelt, cutting across a country road used mainly by walkers, cyclists, horse riders and pedestrian commuters such as schoolchildren.

Central Government, usually a keen supporter of waste recycling schemes, appears to have refused to grant leave to build a proper direct access for the site on to the M65. Surely that speaks volumes in terms of the site's suitability.

Readers can help by joining with us from all parts of the borough, to make sure that this proposal and others like it the future, are allowed to be built only if they meet with the approval of those who have to live with them.

PETER MALLON, Branch Development Officer, Lancashire Branch, Campaign to Protect Rural England.