WHEN a person has to work all the hours God sends to survive the tax inflated cost of living, and what little free time that's left is lost to congestion and gridlock, then important community issues, that should get support, tend to get ignored.

Not intentionally though, but out of necessity. If lost time is lost money it could mean lost home.

We are therefore most grateful to Bernard Slingsby for giving us such a clear picture in respect of Radcliffe's so called regeneration and how it might affect our already overcrowded roads, our quality of life, our children's lives.

Put this picture alongside that of 28 thundering HGVs - probably speeding up and down Radcliffe Moor Road, Countess Lane and Bolton Road, to make a healthy profit - as tons of rotting waste are transported to Bradley Fold Trading Estate, and it can only add up to chaos, gridlock, and misery. Why not Pilsworth, away from homes and right next to the motorway?

The chaos we had when Water Street and Blackburn Street were resurfaced recently was bad enough, but it promises to be a whole lot worse in the future. Or have the new Local Area Partnerships got plans to widen these roads? Highly unlikely has to be the answer.

Having caused so much chaos and spent so much time and money on the resurfacing, it would be idiotic to have us suffer it all again. It has surely got to stay as it is for at least 20 years, perhaps longer to justify the cost.

Why, when so many people can clearly see what causes the congestion, didn't Bury MBC include road widening as part of the upgrade. There may not have been room for another full width lane, but just a metre could mean the difference, especially with today's average vehicle being so much wider, between total gridlock and slow moving (which at least gets us to work).

Take for instance the parking layby opposite Spanners, and the new Canalside residential development on Water Street. Barely wide enough for the narrowest of vehicles, those that park here invariably stick well out into the carriageway. So much so that when buses travelling in opposite directions meet, it can cause delays. So narrow can the road be here that even a cyclist can struggle to make progress through stationery traffic, all the way to the cycle lane on Radcliffe New Road even. What good are advanced stop areas if you can't get to them? Doesn't it tell us something when cars have to be made with retractable wing mirrors.

Even before the foundations were dug for Canalside an engineer was asked (at a public meeting) if, while they had a clean canvass, it might be possible to widen the road a little (a metre perhaps) along the front of this development, in effect position the buildings a touch closer to the canal, to try and eleviate such problems. Clearly, it was a daft idea. As for this housing development (60 two-bedroom apartments, with a soon to be improved canal) it's an ideal investment for the forward thinking wizz-kid and his/her partner - each with their statue symbol 4x4 or SUV, no doubt.

But with only one on-site parking space per apartment, and just 16 visitor spaces - and all standard width at that, it's going to be fun and games for everyone. Remember the congestion problems when wagons used to come and go from the mill that once occupied the site.

Then when the adjacent site, Spanners - which is earmarked for similar improvement' is complete and lived in, what then? With Radcliffe High and Coney Green also earmarked for housing, commuting through Radcliffe promises to be a total nightmare. At least Coney Green residents will have the tram to fall back on.

The way things are going, the only sure way to get around Radcliffe will be by bicycle.

But isn't that what global warming demands? Isn't this what the children of our new state of the art school will demand? It is their future after all, and since they're helping design their new school, why not their roads as well.

Worried Radcliffe North Resident'