I WOULD like to ask the Chairman of the Planning and Development Committee, Cllr J.E.Hilton, to explain to me and others like me how you can justify the spending of £60 million to employ 2,000 people at Stonecross Lane Business Park.

Surely this is a very poor investment. How much of the £60 million is investment? Is it Government or council grant money, and how many free years community charge have these people been offered to build this industrial estate here? These people do not spend a lot of money unless there is a big fat carrot dangling. Otherwise they would have taken it somewhere else, Warrington, Skelmersdale, St Helens or Bolton.

Apart from the two farmers who are selling the land, and perhaps one or two councillors, nobody else wants the damn thing. How would they like it a the bottom of their garden?

Is the council going to compensate local residents in a residential area who are about to find themselves living in an industrial area? What happens if all the units are not occupied and fall in to a state of disrepair? We will end up in 10 or 15 years time with some more derelict land, for the council to spend their millions of pounds on.

D. Price

Stonecross Lane, Lowton.

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