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Your letters, June 24
No one likes to be lied to
Dear editor, I am writing in response to your coverage of the 'traveller site' at Hut Lane, Heath Charnock.
Your headline (Guardian, June 17) 'We are not bad people' implies that local residents are suggesting otherwise.
As local residents, we would like to be given a chance to say why this article so totally missed the point.
The vast majority of local residents are in the process of objecting to the retrospective planning application for a caravan site on this greenbelt land, and this could take some time.
The planning meeting, in which this case is to be considered, is not scheduled until July 21.
Meanwhile, we are left in a very difficult situation. I think it is unrealistic of the travellers to expect too much, when the issue has not yet been resolved, and when our trust has been breached in such a calculated way. Nobody likes to be lied to.
We were very offended by the implication that local residents were racist, (we are members of Amnesty International and consider ourselves to be liberal, fair-minded and unprejudiced), and feel we have been wrongly pre-judged.
At no time in the last few weeks, since the caravans arrived, have our family used stereotypical words to describe the Linfoot and Boswell families, nor have we assumed they are 'bad people', who have a 'criminal record', and 'don't pay their taxes'.
The use of the these words and phrases only serve to reinforce negative stereotypes by wrongly putting words into people's mouths.
The issue for us is not about who has done this, but how the planning laws have been manipulated and abused.
The issues would be the same whether it was travellers or any local business person or farmer, lying to local residents, then flouting planning laws, and setting up a caravan site or business venture on greenbelt land.
Noel and Lesley Roberts
Heath Charnock
No one has been racist
Dear editor, I read with a mixture of dismay and frankly disbelief , the article in last week's Guardian (June 17) about the travellers in Heath Charnock.
The article, as with the initial reporting of this deception in last week's paper, demonstrates a complete absence of any sense of balance, depth of investigation focusing on the key issues or in my view, judgement.
The facts are clear and unequivocal:
FACT....this is plain and simple case of lying and deceiving local residents and the planning authority for personal gain;
FACT...Mr Linfoot, the owner and initial perpetrator, admitted in front of police/residents he had deliberately lied to achieve an illegal occupation of the site;
FACT..Mr Linfoot was still talking about stables and horses to residents the day before the caravan convoy rolled up. He even asked as elderly resident if he could keep his spare keys in his house for access to the horse/pony stables;
FACT.. trees were chopped down to provide additional access, shower blocks, security lighting etc (were) quickly erected, all without the slightest consideration for planning consent/residents etc. (This is) unlike all other residents in Chorley who all have to comply with the legal process;
FACT... a number of commercial vehicles populate the site, including a burger bar and candy floss van;
FACT... this site is greenbelt with natural vegetation/ wildlife. Until recently deer populated the field. The council records confirm at no time has there been flytipping, as reported in your article;
FACT...there have been no racist comments from residents whatsoever. The only person who has been in contact is one family sympathetic to the travellers;
FACT...residents of all ages are stressed and extremely upset by these events. Children who played near this field, where there was once traffic, are no longer able to do so.
The focus of the residents has at all times been on the deception/lying re the planning consent.
There has not been any comment on the occupiers of the site although I would suggest that it may suit the travellers to suggest this as way of deflecting from the main issues regarding their illegal occupation.
The comments in your article are dangerous in so much as portraying a situation of misunderstood/misrepresented people who want nothing more than to harmonise with local residents.
The same residents that have been lied to and deliberately deceived into believing there would be stables and horses - rather than a residential/commercial enterprise - so I'd beinterested in how you would regard this as a platform for future trust and integration.
This is simply a story of right versus wrong. That's what I teach my children - am I wrong?
Dave Jones
Heath Charnock
Fortress is a blot on land
Dear editor, I am a resident of Olde Stoneheath Court which is adjacent to the illegal gypsy caravan site on Hut Lane, Heath Charnock.
I read Natalie Banks' article in the Chorley Guardian (June 17) with total disbelief - this is biased journalism in favour of the gypsies.
I wonder how much research you have carried out to be able to go to print for the second time on two consecutive weeks in the Chorley Guardian? From what I have read, very little.
One of the quotes was: "If people come and speak to us we will listen and try to get along."
I wonder how we could do that as all paths to our front doors in Olde Stoneheath Court are open and accessible. This is contrary to the high fences/gates surrounding the illegal camp site which now looks more like a fortress and an ugly blot on a beautiful greenbelt landscape.
The lies and deception used by the gypsies in obtaining the initial planning permission (stable block/tack room/menage/one gate entrance) was a blatant act, well planned and executed.
They admitted their 'lies' in the Guardian. You clearly have also been duped.
Perhaps you should be actively researching and approaching the council to establish just how they intend finding a brown site in the borough of Chorley to house these people - as the Government requested.
From an angry and very upset, law-abiding, tax-paying, hard-working grandmother.
Linda Fahey
Heath Charnock
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