I AM writing this letter having just returned from the planning committee meeting which rejected the proposal for a crematorium at Radcliffe cemetery.

In 1997 I attended the meeting which gave outline planning permission. I came away with the impression that the council were hostile to residents' views and that full permission was already decided, there being no chance of it ever being based on logic.

It seems that two factors have changed since then.

Firstly, there are now more houses and commercial activity situated off Cemetery Road. Secondly, and perhaps equally importantly, a change in council procedure which as I understand it requires discussion between planning committee members as a whole rather than in party groups within the committee.

In June, when the committee were due to make a decision, we were able to get them to defer until after the summer holidays and until they could see the site as it is today. At that site visit on Thursday even the minibus carrying the councillors had difficulty getting down the single track Cemetery Road, despite the presence of passing places! I believe that all of our objections on the grounds of inaccessibility were found to be justified in that five-minute period. Five years ago I put in a lot of time and did a lot of work with Frank Leach and Phil Holt, printing and distributing leaflets and writing letters etc. After that first planning meeting I believed that the decision was a foregone conclusion and attended meetings thereafter only as a gesture of support for Phil and Frank, who were still making the effort. My belief in the planning process was non-existent.

All credit then to Phil and Frank, and indeed our local councillors who gave considerable help. Without their efforts the decision would have been made, and permission probably granted at the June meeting, without the benefit of the extra site visit. The mini-gridlock, a council minibus and three cars, which occurred on a road designed for occasional local funerals would not therefore have played its part.

My faith in the planning process is, to an extent, now restored. When the committee were given the facts, and were able to see the situation themselves, they returned a vote based on logic. It's probably a public misconception that councillors vote only on party lines and with the borough's coffers in mind, and certainly it was my impression. It's probably also a planning committee misconception that residents affected by their decisions can see no further than the value of their homes.

When the committee rejected the application on Thursday evening there was a stunned silence. No one could believe it, even though we knew that we were right in our protestations. A lot of people have had their faith restored in the democratic process and not just because the vote went in our favour.

And finally, to all those people who wrote to the Bury Times in support of the crematorium, probably without ever seeing the access problems in Radcliffe; to all those people who considered us "outsiders" simply because we had moved onto a new estate regardless of where we had moved from; and to those who thought we were of the "not in our backyard" brigade, I have this to say: Bury still needs a crematorium (you told us so). Does your backyard have good access?

NEIL FRIEDRICH,

Greenbank Road,

Radcliffe.