SIR – Regarding 3,500 new homes in Lower Broadheath parish, west of the river Severn. You reported the response of Number10.gov.uk/ Page19493 to Richard Burt’s petition to look again at the Regional Spatial Strategy requirement for significant housing development in south Worcestershire, signed by some 850 local residents.

While Gordon Brown is publicly saying “that he must listen more to the people”, the quangos he has imposed are saying sit down, keep quiet, we have already decided what is going to happen in your area.

In its response, No.10 claims many excellent objectives on a theme of sustainability and rising to the challenge of climate change that it seems determined to fail to implement. The proposals so far put forward are excessive, under-resourced, without adequate job provision west of the river for an additional 7,000 residents and do not provide the transport infrastructure to enable them to find work elsewhere in the county.

With agricultural land going under concrete, a process that will never be reversed, the flooding of the Laugherne Brook such as we saw in the summer of 2007 will certainly become a challenge.

In the response, paragraph seven actually tells us what should be happening “Without the RSS our local authorities would be expected to create their local plans”. Surely, county councillors are the very people we have democratically elected to organise our local needs – are you listening yet,Gordon?

Roger Bass,
Broadheath.