SO another firm has applied to build houses at the back of the post office in Billington and we know that access to the site, along with the proposed calming measures through the village, are included in the scheme.

As this is a new plan, will the Ribble Valley Council look again at the scheme for the access road and the calming measures which have been shown to be dangerous for traffic and pedestrians by traffic consultants, one commissioned by the council itself?

Why did the council turn down their report?

Another report commissioned by the 1,156 people of Billington also condemned the scheme and said it was dangerous.

Why did they turn this one down? And what about the proposed housing site containing a former tip?

Holden Homes, who have now backed out of the scheme (why?), stated there was no tip, but, as I have pointed out before, people still living can remember playing on the tip when they were children.

And how does this square with the statement by the environment director in a letter to a Billington resident that, although he could not find any records of a tip, it was a landfill site. A lot of tips in Victorian times were never registered. Who knows what was tipped on this one, even as a landfill site? We need to know.

Ribble Valley Council has ignored the views of too many people in the past. Too many schemes have gone ahead in spite of their protests. This time, the people of Billington want the answers to the questions I have put.

And don't let them say this scheme was passed by county highways committee - Ribble Valley passed it before it got there.

Now, they have a chance to say no to any building until a safe access has been found, but will they?

JOSEPH SYKES, Calder Avenue, Billington.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.