I refer to your correspondent (‘Anything good to say about Radcliffe?’, November 20).

Nobody could disagree with the sentiments expressed by your reader and it is the case that Radcliffe has suffered over two decades of underinvestment and neglect in an effort to merge sovereign communities and townships as larger municipal boroughs such as Bury which underpinned the restructuring of local governments in the early Seventies.

I also agree that we appear to have a disheartening impasse to the future regeneration of Radcliffe with the pulling out of the town centre developer due to the economy.

These are historical and external factors that have blockaded the physical and commercial resurgence that Radcliffe deserves. However, we rely on the council to do all it can to help a community like Radcliffe and I know that the newly-installed administration is dedicated to just that, in spite of routine politicisation of the school issue by election-focussed individuals.

I was elected in May as a new Conservative councillor for Radcliffe with the trust of my electors that I would be joining a council that is emphatic in its commitment to a new school and was delighted to learn this week that the land for the new site has finally been acquired after nearly five years of amalgamation, proving that now is no time for more talk just action.

I am also looking forward to the new healthcare centre which is nearing completion which will be a tangible boost for our town.

Since my petition was submitted in July I have been assured that there is a commitment to restore the wider canal network including our canal which is vital to Radcliffe’s future.

Furthermore, over the summer several of us demanded the re-opening of Blackburn Street to at least cushion the devastation of the developers’ rethink to try and make the town more accessible for residents, traders and visitors.

I hope I have offered your readers a basic assurance that as a new local councillor some of us are equally sad and angered by Radcliffe’s unmitigated decline but that we are also wholly committed to its future.

Sam Hurst Radcliffe East