IT SEEMS the first of the Liberal chickens are coming home to roost with remarkable rapidity.

It is no surprise that Government turned down the request for a public inquiry into LCC's planning decision over building a school on land at Towneley Park, Burnley.

Such decisions are taken on planning merits, not on the number of petition signatures.

It was obvious from the officer's report to Burnley's planning committee that there were no exceptional circumstances' to justify a call-in, the demand for which was politically driven by the Liberals.

That report, read impartially, makes clear the officer's recommendation to object was only a marginal one.

It is equally clear the decision by the council to oppose any land sales to facilitate the building was marginal. It was taken on a margin of a single vote casting vote of a Liberal mayor.

Those opposed to this decision were not just Labour members. That council meeting was also warned such a decision would trigger a compulsory purchase order by the county council, and opposing this would cost money the figure given to me was about £90,000 not £30,000.

It is highly likely opposing a CPO would be futile.

Objectors are narrow minded they are putting their own local interests above those of a generation of schoolchildren whose skills Burnley needs.

People are also trying to bury the fact that implementing the flood consultants report would reduce the flood risk to Fulledge.

Local Friends of the Earth, and I am a member of the Friends of the Earth, seem more concerned with defending patches of grass than with major issues of climate change which threaten us all.

PETER KENYON (via email).