BEFORE Labour and the Tories trade the next round of point-scoring over whether or not to develop greenfield sites for employment purposes, I would like to know how the Government is helping local councils to utilise brownfield sites.

If it is not made financially difficult to use greenfield sites or, conversely, if brownfield sites are not made easy to develop, by planning or financial incentives, it is always going to be the easy option to unsustainably gobble up ever more greenfield sites.

This situation really is the politics of the madhouse in our present environmental situation and it is up to central government to set the policy framework.

It is not just a question of loss of farming land, or habitat loss for wildlife, but also the potential of greenfield sites to be used far more constructively in the future to soak up carbon dioxide around cities.

ANTHONY WOOD,

Worcester.