I WRITE regarding the threat to the open space at Spen Moor (Bury Times, Feb 12). All is not necessarily lost!

In the good old days Bury, and many other towns, benefited from the generosity of their wealthy residents. The Whitehead Clock Tower and Ainsworth Recreation Ground were just two gifts from John Whitehead of Elton, which have stood as memorials to a generous man. Blackpool Library and Art Gallery were the gifts of the Grundy family from Bury, and so on.

I have no idea who owns or controls Peel Investments: perhaps they are local people who inherited Peel Mills. I imagine a controller who is probably a great admirer of Sir Robert Peel (and his father), the Prime Minister who switched power from landowners to industrialists.

Would it be inconceivable, therefore, to hope that such a person of wealth and great generosity could forget about building on this land and nominate the area as "Peel Park", knowing how appreciative Bury people would be. Surely the spirit of generosity cannot be dead. We all love Bury, don't we?

"To give and not to count the cost".

JIM MASON,

ex-Mayor of Radcliffe.

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