I SEE that Cllr Jarvis is yet again letting off steam about the fact I do not live in the particular area that the campaign of the day is taking place (Journal 16 July).

Perhaps Cllr. Jarvis will remember this when he is up for re-election to a ward where he does not live; or next May when Cllr Hale, who is a Welshman is up for re-election. And again with Cllr. Anderson who also fails to live within Hope Carr.

If we took the views expressed by Cllr. Jarvis as the correct approach to allowing people to either stand for election or to comment on an area, then ALL THREE Hope Carr councillors would be excluded. With that in mind Cllr. Jarvis should be reminded of the old saying that "those that live in glass houses should not throw stones".

Now let us turn to the question of the

guided busway.

It is interesting that after nearly a year of stating publicly that a rail link is out of the question, both Cllr. Jarvis and Cllr. Clarke (GMPTE) have done a complete u-turn and are now stating that this is a real option (which is to be welcomed).

However, they seem to be missing the point: an important objection is to this route, which has to a great degree been renaturalised, allowing the wildlife to flourish. As such the Green Party will campaign as hard to prevent this route becoming a rail link as it is campaigning against the busway.

There are several alternative routes, which will not destroy wildlife, will cause very little disturbance to local residents and would give us an effective and viable public transport iniative.

This would be supported by 99% of the public, backed might I add by a comprehensive prioritisation of bus routes within the area, giving a public transport system fit for the next century.

As I have repeatedly requested let us have a public debate, the Green Party v Labour. The Green Party are more than happy to pay for such an event to take place, yet Labour ducks out of it every single time, the only reason for that is they are 'chicken' to face the Green Party in a public and open debate.

Chris Maile

Leigh Green Party

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