LOTS of attention has quite rightly been given to the plight of Radcliffe and Prestwich, with their loss of local amenities. However, little is said about the dreadful neglect of Whitefield. The prevailing attitude of officialdom is invariably: "It's only Whitefield".

A once thriving bus station - even when a herd of cows was driven through it twice a day - with regular services, is now a lonely, part derelict wasteland where buses appear to arrive at their leisure!

Before Bury took over, Whitefield Town Hall was a pleasure to visit. It was a pleasant building set in lovely park land, with a clean pond and plenty of ducks. Indeed, people took their children just to feed the ducks. Now the place is a dump, the gardens are a disgrace and the pond . . . what pond? It is just a green slime-covered hollow. Stand Grammar School for Boys, a fine building with an excellent reputation and easy access from the Metrolink. So what? They transfer the pupils to Bury so they can sell it.

Bury, Radcliffe and Prestwich have many large and medium-sized stores, with easy access for older people and non car-owners. Whitefield has a tiny Kwik Save in the middle of a bomb site! Would other towns put up with this?

Having lived in Whitefield for a long time, I have seen it through its poor times, its war times, and its comparatively prosperous times, and I feel sad at the way no one seems to care.

Whitefield is a good place to live, its people are decent and it does not deserve to be the Cinderella of the area. But will anyone listen or, as with everything else I have mentioned, will it again be a case of . . . "It's only Whitefield".

AN OLD CITIZEN,

Whitefield.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.