CONCERNING your report "Public footpath to get new route" (LET, March 2). Being a resident in the street most affected by this scheme, to relocate the path into Thompson Park, Burnley, it is extremely annoying to find an asset to myself and other residents being taken away without us being consulted.

The newspaper articles about this are filled with rubbish excuses for Burnley College to get what it wants.

One excuse for shutting this public right of way is an assault on a student by a member of the public - one assault!

The next excuse is that the college is "one of the few in the country to have public access through its campus." Again, rubbish! Many colleges are fragmented across town and city centres where the public walks day and night.

Another excuse is "security guards on patrol." Burnley College has been employing car parking attendants because of the parking problems we have in the area. These are the only active "security guards" I have seen.

The construction of the new footpath would involve felling five mature trees to put a footpath next to a footpath. Not 12 months ago, three mature trees were felled so that rebuilding work could be carried out at the college. Methinks they are going into the logging business.

May I suggest just leave things as they are and indeed think of local people who like their pathway into the park and look upon it as an asset.

After all, we put up with their comings and goings, wagons and cars parked on the pavement outside houses, loud music from "mobile discos" masquerading as cars and even from within the college itself.

I don't mind all this really - the college has a job to do, but I will not lie down quietly and see Shorey Bank made into a cul-de-sac. We want our path to the park to remain.

A LUCAS, Shorey Bank, Burnley.

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