ANONYMITY. Despite it being completely faceless, it’s actually pretty powerful stuff.

We use it at The Champion quite a bit, for all sorts of reasons. I’m hardly its biggest fan because I believe people - whether it’s you, me, or a politician sitting atop some hugely embarrassing scandal - should almost always be held accountable for what they say, and stand up for what they believe in. But, of course, things aren’t always that simple.

Our And Another Thing column is usually controversial, often thought provoking and more often than not funny, but it’d be nowhere if the readers sending in their rants had to be identified. I also totally understand why a source often has to be kept quiet for their own safety. In fact, it’s Clause 14 of the Press Complaints Commission’s code of conduct.

But I think it’s sad when a Skelmersdale reader feels the need to identify themselves simply as “Mr X” when they want to have their say on the plans for the Whitemoss Landfill site. We’ve been here before - in my case, literally - but while the resident makes some good points about the site, they go on to say:

"I would like to say that I do not wish my name to appear on this letter. Such is the hysteria surrounding Whitemoss, I fear that disclosing my identity would make me a target for those who are intolerant of people like me and my neighbours, who do not share their views."

I understand entirely why they’re hesitant to say exactly who they are. I got a pasting off all sorts of people - including WRATH, one of the action groups opposed to the development plans - earlier this year because I dared to utter my own opinion after personally visiting the site. I accepted their argument that I was a Southport rather than Skelmersdale resident and so couldn’t possibly understand what it was like to live next to the site, but the tone and anger of the responses I got off many felt genuinely uncomfortable.

Absolutely everybody has the right to have their say on the subject, I reckon, and it seems Lancashire County Council agree with me because Whitemoss is still a consultation rather than a concrete plan.

The whole letter is being published in The Champion next week in its entirety, but it would have been more powerful still if the writer had felt able to say who they were without genuinely worrying about being made a target.

PS: Just finished work on a special edition of The Champion - it's your local newspaper, but not as you know it! All will be revealed tomorrow (Wednesday, June 9).

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