OVER 50 years ago when I was a boy I lived in a town full of cotton mills but within minutes I could be in beautiful countryside no matter which direction I chose to walk.

The Calder Valley was a beautiful place almost rivalling the Ribble Valley with estates like Read Hall and Huntroyde.

Now when I look down the valley the most striking scenes are the Philips factory site and the huge eyesores that are the Altham and Hapton industrial sites.

I find it alarming that, in the other direction, an even bigger business park is being planned that will be five times the size of the Shadsworth business park.

I realise that factories in the modern day have to have good road links and therefore be on the edge of towns but as more and more of our countryside is buried under concrete the people in the towns will shortly find that this green and pleasant land is nothing more than a memory.

R WHITAKER (Mr), Orchard Street, Great Harwood.