SIR – It is absolutely outrageous that a planning inspector has ‘fined’ our council an unbelievable £50,000 just for sticking to its policy of providing affordable housing on new developments in order to meet the severe shortage of it in the city. It is not for an inspector to overturn democratically arrived-at policy.

This is not the first time an inspector has landed the council with a perverse decision. One upheld the council’s refusal to build a bungalow in designated green space but, at the same time, then told the applicant how to go ahead and build it anyway!

The trouble with the planning inspectorate is that they are unelected bureaucrats and so not accountable to anybody.

There is no appeal against decisions as there would be in a court of law. They are a typical quango of power with irresponsibility.

COUNCILLOR ALAN AMOS, Worcester.