IN response to last week's Xanadu coverage, and in particular the letter from Mark Hale, in which he makes many accusations against both myself and David Morris.

If only Mark Hale kept to debating the facts relating to the Xanadu project instead of resorting to personal attacks upon other candidates, then perhaps Labour's share of the vote would not have dropped by over 800, reducing their majority to only 388, a majority that they will lose in next May's elections.

It would seem that Mark Hale is more intent on referring to a rally held by the Green Party that attracted over 150 people, and the fact that I live in Wigan, while conveniently forgetting the fact that he actually hails from Wales, than talking about pollution levels, about the fact that local residents' homes are being devalued, that there is a real threat to the health of the local community, that traffic will increase to such a level that the road network will not cope.

He does not seem to be interested in these real concerns of the local community, perhaps he will be more interested in the fact that both the Parkman Report and the Environment Agency have warned that should the course of Westleigh Brook be altered then there is every chance Leigh Business Centre will be susceptible to flooding.

Perhaps those like Mark Hale would like to stand in the kitchen of one local resident where he will see that only yards away will be the site of the proposed coach park. Perhaps he would like to talk to the local resident that I spoke to on Friday morning, who had just been told that his option of selling his home will not be viable, not even with a greatly reduced price tag because of Xanadu. Or the mother whose child suffers from asthma. Let him tell these people face to face in their own homes that they must suffer because Labour want yet another white elephant, because Cllr Brian Jarvis will not, nor will the developers. They have been invited to call on these people, but refuse, because they know they cannot justify Xanadu to them.

Will I must tell Mark Hale, Brian Jarvis, Peter Smith and the developers that the Green Party were not simply here to fight an election. We were here to defeat Xanadu and that is exactly what we will do, not matter what it takes, including the coming legal challenge of the Secretary if State's refusal to call the application in for a public inquiry.

Mark Hale should explain how he can be supporting a project such as Xanadu, which will be seeing an extra 6,000 vehicles adding to the Global Warming problem, in the same week as his party's Deputy Leader John Prescott, speaking after holding talks with the Japanese Ambassador Tanabe said: "But I have to say that I am disappointed that the proposed reductions - which I understand would average three per cent - are well below that which is necessary to tackle the serious problem of climate change," where the EU is taking a more serious view by proposing a 7.5%, or the Labour Government's intended domestic reduction 20% by the year 2010.

Can he explain to us lesser mortals how Wigan MBC is to contribute to those overall reductions, or is it they intend putting the burden on other areas to reduce theirs by a greater degree to compensate for Leigh's increase.

I think not, the reality is that Wigan's Labour Party is being totally irresponsible in supporting a project that is putting at risk the Government's strategy to reduce global warming.

Chris Maile

Green Party Agent

Central Lancashire Green Party

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