HOW right your Opinion (LET, October 16) was when you urged Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott to "call in" Castle Cement's Bellman Quarry application.

If our county councillors were daunted by having to make such a momentous decision, who can blame them?

Schemes such as Bellman must, as you say, be dealt with in the most democratic way, by public inquiry.

And please don't forget that Tarmac's Bankfield Quarry application, which is next in the planning pipeline, proposes excavating another 50 metres deeper, in a quarry whose bed is already below the bed of the River Ribble.

The implications of all this, which is what so concerned councillors, are stupendous.

The opportunity has finally arrived for those with the welfare of Ribble Valley, of its children and old folk, its hospitals, its beautiful rivers, hills and valleys, to make their voices heard by writing to John Prescott and urging him to call a public inquiry.

Lancashire County Council gave Mr Prescott five weeks to take a view, but he could well decide before that, so there is no time to lose.

DAVID MORTIMER, MARY HORNER, LINDA ENGLAND, ANDREW COLLINSON (on behalf of Air Watch, RATS and the Bellman Action Group), Green Drive, Clitheroe.

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