I WAS born in ‘jam butty town’ 71 years ago and was brought up in this area, which I still live in, so I have many memories and recollections.

I recently received my voting card for the Northwich Neighbourhood Plan referendum on June 21.

In the absence of any information or publicity I did a search via the internet to satisfy my curiosity.

The CWAC website got me there, as did a Google search.

Hopefully the majority of the 16,000 or so people eligible to vote will find some way to find the information, but I guess those who are not computer literate will struggle.

We should all try and help them.

The plan refers to the thorny issue of the Winnington Bridge.

Who can remember the planning application for Winnington Village going to appeal, when we heard from a transport survey that this would have no material difference to traffic flow, when it would take only one brain cell to imagine the outcome?

The Neighbourhood Plan states that the River Weaver is currently classed as a commercial waterway, and assumes that this remains the case, meaning that the bridge must either be at a height to allow commercial craft to pass through, or be movable in some way.

This assumption raises an obvious question, why can’t we press to get the river re-classified?

Who can remember when the last commercial traffic passed under this bridge?

Busy shipbuilding and chemical industries have largely disappeared, but we still seem happy enough to bring Winnington and Northwich to a traffic standstill every now and then if some amateur sailor wants to come through and park up his yacht.

This is ridiculous.  If we can kick into touch the idea of having to replace or develop a movable bridge then some much cheaper options should come into play. Then we might see some real progress.

Who can remember when the bridge at Frodsham had to be closed for repair?

The Army came in one weekend and put a Bailey bridge in place alongside it which was perfectly serviceable for heavy traffic.

Who can remember the green railway bridge which crossed Winnington Avenue?

It disappeared and we discovered later that ICI had apparently sold it to the Chinese as it was redundant.

Who can remember the more recent demolition of the huge chemical works and silos near the bottom of Barnton Hill? There will have been enough huge steel girders taken out of these structures to build 10 bridges after refurbishment.

There must be some scope here for further thinking.

Why not go a step further and build another waterfront adjacent to the Winnington Village further downstream?

Budding yachtsmen and any residual ‘commercial’ traffic can tie up there.

This could complement the shops, restaurants, pub etc promised for this development but I am not holding my breath waiting for these developments to materialise.

John Illidge Winnington