IN his letter to HAS (Sept 16), councillor Ben Ord seems to have forgotten that the era when a miner could walk out of the house back door and into the pit cage disappeared during the Sixties.

He should also be aware that a car parked in a roadside lay-by is constantly being overtaken by other means of transport, including the bicycle.

During the first half of the last century, many men with blackened faces walked around County Durham and beneath the ground on which they strolled were many layers of coal.

These abundant resources assisted in creating and sustaining a global empire.

Today, in other parts of the world, men with black faces are also walking around their local areas under which are large deposits of copper that are essential in the development of our green industries.

Our future is linked to their future and well-being.

I am afraid that few small industrial units at Merrington Lane will scarcely supply their requirements.

Councillor Ord should read the speech by Klaus Schwab, chairman of the World Economic Forum, to the G20 conference at Davos on January 25, 2011, when he concluded: “We can’t keep doing the same old thing in a new era that requires new responses.”

Thomas Conlon, Spennymoor.