THE proposed Safeway supermarket, off Queen Street in Great Harwood, is set to create 180 new jobs and this can only be good news. However, the proposed location of the store must raise serious doubts.

Why a town centre location?

Alan Ramsbottom Way (off Heys Lane), leads on to vast areas of open land awaiting development. The road itself has been built to accommodate large HGV-type traffic. Surely, this area is more suited to this proposed development and 180 jobs would still be created.

Town centre shops along Queen Street would not have their livelihoods decimated. Heavy goods vehicles would not pound along Queen Street, passing sheltered accommodation. Congestion caused by shoppers' traffic would not occur.

There would be no need to demolish and rebuild the library. There would be no need to demolish and rebuild the industrial units in Plough Yard.

There would be no need to demolish and rebuild the day nursery centre. There would be no need to erect a storage centre for the library service vehicle. This alone would save on construction costs.

The land off Alan Ramsbottom Way is earmarked for development. It must make sense to build there.

W J POWELL, Plough Yard, Queen Street, Great Harwood.

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