LOCAL environment protesters have played a trump card in their battle to get the Western Bypass scrapped. North Lancashire Friends of the Earth have written to the Millennium Commission asking them to take the proposed bypass into account when deciding whether to finance the city's River Lune Millennium Park. The riverside park is the jewel in the crown of the city council's millennium plans and the campaigners have asked that any multi-million pound grant be made conditional on the road scheme being written off. FoE campaigner, Mark Johnston, said: "We are upping the stakes. A large concrete bridge will totally ruin the peaceful riverbank settings that are planned.

We think the Millennium Commission will not fund the park proposal if it is to get this ridiculous bypass running through it. The city is being presented with a simple choice, the out-dated ideas of the past or the new ideas of the future. For Friends of the Earth, the choice is absolutely clear."

The River Lune Millennium Park has reached the final stages of the bidding process and could attract a grant of more than £2 million in November. It involves cycle paths, walkways and a pedestrian bridge across the Lune.

In a letter to the Chairman of the Millennium Commission, Chris Smith MP, FoE draw attention to Lancashire County Council's plans for the Western Bypass linking Heysham with the M6.

It says: "The concrete superstructure of the bridge would be visually intrusive and bring with it a dramatic increase in noise, air and light pollution. We believe it is contradictory for a project to champion the modes of transport most appropriate for the new millennium whilst at the same time being blighted by a development that so embodies the ways of the past."

The group has also promised to send all county council documents relating to the bypass to each individual member of the Millennium Commission.

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