LAST week’s Bury Times contained a story entitled “Restaurant responds to parking row", regarding the Miller and Carter Steakhouse in Greenmount.

Having read the article, I was somewhat surprised at the comments attributed to the general manager, Oliver Jones.

Parking problems in Greenmount have been exacerbated since the decision to introduce charges on the car park when the site was a Toby Carvery.

Brandlesholme Road in particular is congested as traffic that has for many years used the car park is dispersed to neighbouring streets.

With a doctor’s surgery, the village pre-school and local businesses in the immediate area, as one of the local councillors I approached the owners of the Miller and Carter to investigate whether a mutually beneficial solution could be found to the issue.

On January 29, I attended a meeting at the Miller and Carter with Mary Evans, estates manager with a company called CBRE, which is employed by Mitchells and Butlers to manage the various properties in Greater Manchester and elsewhere.

I asked whether it would be possible for a part of the huge car park to be available for residents to use free of charge or whether parking charges could be suspended at certain parts of the day when the pub was not busy.

I re-iterated this would benefit families using the old school and patients of the doctors practice, especially those who are elderly or have mobility issues and it would also support shops and other small business in Greenmount village.

Unfortunately, I was told that Mitchells and Butler could not support these suggestions, but there was the possibility at some point in the future that parking spaces could be offered to the doctor's surgery for an annual fee and this money would then be donated to charity.

On the basis of Mr Jones's comments in the article, I am pleased that there now appears to be a proposal to offer five or six spaces to staff at the medical centre as this will release further parking spaces for patients who will not have to park on surrounding roads.

Miller and Carter is obviously entitled to introduce parking charges on its land, but I had hoped that agreement could have been reached for an increase in free parking spaces which I believe would benefit all parties and address the ongoing problems.

As a Greenmount resident myself, it is my experience that the car park is rarely if ever anywhere near full on weekdays.

Taking into account the above, I was therefore astonished to read Mr Jones quote: "We are community based. We do care and will do what we can for the community . . . there is only so much you can do if you have not even been approached.”

This also ignores previous contact between the local community group and representatives of Mitchells and Butlers.

I would also ask why the Bury Times did not include a quote from Mr Jones that was included in the on-line version of the story where he accepted that I had spoken to a colleague of his.

Cllr James Daly

North Manor