A NEW crematorium for Bury could soon receive the go-ahead. The intention is to use pre-owned council land to the rear of Radcliffe Cemetery.

This cemetery was laid down nearly 100 years ago and its access, Cemetery Road, was designed as a single track to be used by horse-drawn hearses. Its width has not significantly changed.

From the-mid eighties Bury Metro began approving building applications from Peel Holdings, Barratt Manchester, Stately Homes and Elite Homes. Meanwhile Bury Metro knew only too well that the land adjoining Radcliffe Cemetery was earmarked as a site for the proposed crematorium.

When outline permission was given in March 1996, I and other residents were assured that we would be kept fully informed of all issues relating to planning permission. This has not happened. In fact, I wrote to the borough highways officer in February about my concerns over the re-opening of Cemetery Road and have not yet received a reply. As a further insult, Bury planning department gave planning permission to Elite Homes after outline planning permission was given for the crematorium, knowing full well that the proposed access would route funeral corteges right past those homes.

I can hear supporters of a new crematorium reaching for their pens to discredit us for "spoiling green belt" with our new homes. Let me say now that although I would prefer the council to find an alternative site, I agree with the need for a crematorium for Bury and Radcliffe Cemetery is probably the best location.

The access, however, is dreadful. What started out as a dignified approach to a little-used cemetery is now surrounded by housing and badly congested roads.

It is no use people crowing people about our houses being there. It has happened and Bury Metro gave permission!

All I ask is that the council does not allow a large number of funerals to pass through a family housing estate, a view which any decent citizen, I'm sure, would have sympathy with.

This amenity will serve the community for decades, so why not build a dedicated access from Bury and Bolton Road, giving a dignified approach free of interruptions? It would pay for itself in a few years.

The alternative, the opening of Cemetery Road at its junction with Greenbank Road, is nonsense! For a start there is a tip there. What dignity would there be for a cortege stopped behind trucks and cars stuffed with old fridges, carpets, shrubs and the like? If anyone thinks that bereaved families will experience the same traffic flow as they do approaching Overdale or Agecroft then think again.

Ainsworth Road has been neglected for decades and is chaos. A traffic impact study was carried out more than three years ago when the schools were on holiday and before a large housing development was built at the top of Cemetery Road. Funerals will not be afforded the dignity they deserve approaching via Cemetery Road. The use of Bury and Bolton Road would be better.

One final point. My understanding is that the crematorium is to be built and operated privately, and Bury Council will make money out of it. Yet its own planning committee will sit in judgement on the planning application. Food for thought, is't it?

GREENBANK ROAD

RESIDENT