I REFER to Carl Chrystan's letter in the Bury Times on Thursday, July 5, which makes reference to the planning application for the East Lancashire Railway (ELR) Buckley Wells Tourist Development, but confusingly is being used as a protest against a Metrolink station which does not exist and which is not the subject of this planning application.

Let me correct Carl on a number of points which he raises in his letter and the flyer circulated to the residents of the Baron Street area.

The ELR has a long-term plan for the development of the old Buckley Wells Sheds and Sidings area.

These plans are described in the ELR Buckley Wells Masterplan. This plan is intended to guide progress over a period of 10 or so years to develop the existing ELR locomotive works site into a Heritage Railway Centre along the lines of the Great Western Society complex at Didcot, Oxfordshire.

The Masterplan can be viewed on the ELR website www.east-lancs-rly.co.uk Buckley Wells Masterplan'.

One part of the Masterplan is being progressed via the current planning application and involves the deposition of aggregate fill material on the lower level part of the site, furthest from Manchester Road, so that it may be prepared for the construction of additional trackwork in readiness for subsequent phases of the development which will be subject to further planning applications.

It should be noted firstly that the current planning application site is well away from the area that Metrolink have previously considered for a Metrolink Station, secondly that the East Lancashire Railway and Metrolink are completely separate entities, and thirdly that the current application is to eventually provide for track and sidings for the operational purposes of the ELR and not Metrolink.

The Buckley Wells site was served by a shuttle service from Bolton Street Station, although the previous platform was removed some months ago to enable additional sidings to be laid to meet operational requirements.

It is intended to build a replacement ELR platform halt on the site, to facilitate the transfer of visitors from Bolton Street station, thereby minimising additional traffic on Baron Street.

Additional buildings will be constructed to house and thereby protect the valuable heritage locomotives and carriages which the ELR has acquired over the 20 years since it first opened to Ramsbottom in July 1987.

The first of these will be a diesel locomotive storage and running workshop. A turntable, coaling facility and water tower will be constructed to replicate as near as possible similar items which were operational when Bury Steam shed was in existence up to the mid 1960s.

A footbridge will be constructed entirely within the site to span the loco works tracks to allow visitors to cross the tracks safely and view the locomotives and operations from a segregated position, and not as Carl Chrystan wrongly asserts to connect to a Metrolink station which has no place in this development.

All of the above works can be seen outlined on the Buckley Wells Masterplan and again it is quite clear that none of these developments have anything to do with the GMPTE previously proposed Metrolink station development at Baron Street.

The Buckley Wells Masterplan is fully supported by the ELR Trust which comprises the three local authorities through which the railway runs and the ELR.

MALCOLM VICKERS Director East Lancashire Railway