LETTER: Industry and beauty co-exist

I took a helicopter flight over the Goodwood area (the helicopter pilot very kindly allowed me to sit in the front)and I noticed a rather large industrial site, namely a quarry with all its attendant machinery.

I was very impressed at the way natural beauty and industry can exist side by side.

After all the lovely Cornish countryside hosted the famous tin mines which far from diminishing enhanced the area.

The South Downs area is a working environment - not some stupid museum.

This takes me to the case study of Fittleworth Parish Council. In 1995 some residents of Limbourne Lane swarmed onto the parish council like a horde of flies to oppose a planning application for mineral extraction in the nearby area.

Never mind the potential for genuinely industrial employment and bringing in foreign earnings through sales abroad.

I have spoken to a sample of local people and it is no coincidence that it is ordinary good Sussex local people endowed as they are with a natural common sense who understand the imperatives of employment - and know that it can coexist with natural beauty.

Fittleworth Parish Council should correct this error as soon as possible.

The Goodwood case is a wonderful example of industry being absorbed into the natural environment - thus making for an outcome greater than the sum of its parts.

JOHN BARSTOW

The Fleet, Fittleworth

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