My name is Mark Whittaker and I run the Marple Website, the Community web site for Marple. I also write in the Community News free paper on local history and heritage issues.

I have been advised that you are the Executive Member for Leisure and Culture (which will include Heritage) and as such will shortly be receiving for consideration a briefing report regarding the potential restoration of the Iron Bridge in Brabyns Park.

My accomplice in the web site, Peter Clarke and myself have been campaigning since July this year for restoration of the bridge and we have since combined forces with Judith Chantler, a local lady who has been campaigning alone for much longer. We have gained the support of the Marple Community Council and the Local History Society. The Marple Civic Society have also recently expressed an interest in the campaign.

The reason I am contacting you is, firstly, to make you aware of our campaign and the on-line diary that we are keeping on the web site. You can visit this using the following link http://www.marple-uk.com/ironbridge.htm. The diary is set out in reverse chronological order, with the most recent updates at the top of the page. To read the full diary for the first time it is best to start at the bottom of the page and work your way upwards. As you do so, you will find that copies of the correspondence on this issue can be viewed by following the highlighted links in each diary entry. You will also find several pictures that make clear the sorry state that the bridge has been allowed to fall into. We hope this will be of interest to you, we think it's a great way of sharing information with interested visitors to the site.

The second reason for contacting you is to request that we be kept informed of when you receive the report, when and how it will be presented to the Council for a decision and, of course, what the decision is once it has been made. We have been told that the report and decision will be released to the public after it has been made but we do not presently understand the mechanism by which this is done. We would be extremely grateful if you could clarify this for us.

Finally, I would like to offer any support we are able to give the Council on this and we very much hope that a way to restore the Iron Bridge to its former glory can be found.

I wish you and your family a very Happy New Year and look forward to hearing from you after the holidays.