IT was with some dismay that I read the letter headlined "Build The Crematorium" (Sept 27).

I notice it was written by someone who does not even live in Radcliffe. So, Mrs Dickinson, would you like the route to a busy crematorium directly in front of your home? I think not.

It is OK pointing out that Cemetery Road was a straight, dignified route to a cemetery when she knew it of old. As she points out, she was shocked to have to wind her way through our housing estate to a recent funeral. But what, I wonder, would her attitude be if suddenly her area was chosen as a route to Bury's future crematorium?

Touching on the NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) issue, and to set the record straight, 85 per cent of housing was built here when no plans for a crematorium existed. No one here objects to living beside the cemetery so it is untrue to suggest that "if we don't like it we shouldn't have moved here". We moved next to a cemetery, not a crematorium likely to have a funeral passing every 45 minutes and causing mayhem. Since Mrs Dickinson has not lived here for some time, it is likely that she wrote her letter without the benefit of a detailed knowledge of the area.

Re-opening Cemetery Road was an issue of major concern to the councillors who visited this area immediately before they rejected the application. They witnessed their own transport getting stuck on upper Cemetery Road due to traffic congestion, then were shown evidence of major traffic problems associated with the nearby waste amenity site and a firm of truck body converters on lower Cemetery Road, proving that re-opening the road was a nonsense. Seeming that was enough and common sense prevailed.

There is one major question all members of a planning control committee should ask concerning any application: is it so bad that it cannot be approved? Evidently, in this case, it was.

I wonder what comments Mrs Dickinson would have to make if she found herself on the "dignified approach" to the cremation of her loved one, stuck behind half a dozen vehicles stuffed full of rubbish, which in turn had been held up by a delivery of truck parts.

Another site must be found for this crematorium. There are many (if residents of Bury don't mind it in their back yard). Or better still, let the other four crematoria within six miles of Bury do what they have been doing for years and that is dealing adequately with demand.

And leave us alone to get on with our lives without disruption.

PHIL HOLT,

Greenbank Road,

Radcliffe.