I AM happy to know of Dave Watts' anger and frustration at the Government's decision to overrule his opposition to planning permission granted to H. J. Banks of County Durham.

Maybe Mr Watts will understand what the townsfolk have had to endure for the last 30 years as all the beautiful old buildings in the town centre have been pulled down in the name of progress.

In Earlestown they have taken the roof off an old railway building and left it open to the weather. This building has strong association with Stephenson and his planning of the railway. The bulldozers have knocked down some old factories and levelled the land adjacent to the building.

Reports appeared in the local papers that St Mary's School at Birchley was to be pulled down. It had outlived its usefulness. Weeks later there is a notice in the same papers that builders are applying for planning permission to build houses on the same site. This will obscure the beauty and serenity of the centuries-old Birchley Hall, that is steeped in both local and Catholic history.

I am just a ratepayer, it's the money that counts. But I do object to both these projects.

The planners and the council will go their own way regardless. How many of these people live in or around St Helens? Where do they come from? It would be interesting to know.

If my letter gets published I hope Mr Watts will read it and understand how I, along with others in the town, feel. Maybe this is why there is such a low turn-out at election time. Maybe it's one of the people's ways of showing lack of confidence in the council.

Whatever the next step is for the residents in their fight to keep H. J. Banks out, I wish them all the luck in the world.

Betsy (name and address supplied).

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