KEITH Talbot's letter (May 20) headlined "Make no mistake, filling-in IS an option" makes our Association wonder if he attended the same meeting of Bury West Area Board as we did.

The only "mistake" is that of Lowercroft Fisheries. When purchasing the lodges they were fully aware of the costs in maintaining them under the Reservoirs Act of 1975, and therefore should have provided for this eventuality. The rhetoric in Mr Talbot's letters only underlines this predicament and is designed to "muddy the waters" for readers.

If he had listened to Mr Eckersall of Radcliffe Anglers he would now realise that some of the lodges are not suitable for recreational fishing, as they are too deep. For the others to be commercially viable it would need a huge increase in daily anglers sitting shoulder-to-shoulder. Such demand is not there now and will not be there in the foreseeable future.

If Mr Talbot does not support the building of residential properties, why does the plan for a visitor centre at Parker's include residential apartments?

And why does the public footpath at Diggle Lane need to become a road when it has adequately served local anglers for years, as have the tracks at Whitehead's? At Diggle Lane, not only would a widened road destroy mature trees and hedgerows, it would also take parts of 14 occupied plots within protected statutory allotment land. Could the widening be to accommodate larger vehicles accessing the proposed apartments?

Diggle Lane Allotment Association, and indeed all the other 119 members of the public who attended the Bury West Area Board meeting, are not "swallowing the bait". If Bury's planning committee do not follow the clear recommendation for refusal from the councillors on Bury West Area Board, then they, like Mr Talbot, will not have listened to or understood the strength of public opposition to his schemes.

DIGGLE LANE

ALLOTMENT ASSOCIATION,

off Melrose Avenue,

Elton, Bury.