COUNCIL leader Derek Boden was unable to find fault with my recent comments about the contrasting achievements of Labour versus Environment and Wildlife with regard to Spen Moor so, via the letters column (March 19), he ignored my words and replaced them with ones from his own imagination.

The Labour council did not achieve anything by the legal system deciding - at massive cost to council taxpayers - that the east of Spen Moor should be "other protected open land" because that is exactly what the UDP Inspector had ruled it should be in 1995. The west of Spen Moor remains undisputed green belt.

My colleagues and I work with anyone who wants to protect the environment. We only "knock them" where they fail. Coun Boden has indulged in "knocking" me when I have helped protect Spen Moor via Wildlife rules. Gratitude would have been a better response. I found the comments attributed to Coun Boden (March 12) to be disturbing. How could he possibly say that the Site of Biological Importance (SBI) designation was not enough to stop a development and then talk of developers "moving" wildlife up the road?

For the record, Bury MBC has never allowed development on a SBI and there have been no decisions overturned on appeal (eg: the Radcliffe opencast mine plans were kicked out because of the SBI, which I identified by the way).

But on the very strategic Spen Moor, Coun Boden claims the SBI will have insufficient weight when any planning application is submitted. In doing so he has given the green light to would-be developers and has undermined the protection of the site.

I think Coun Boden has made an error serious enough to resign over.

DAVE BENTLEY,

Environment and Wildlife.

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