Council must rein in developers

Dear Sir,

Concerning your articles in recent issues of The Congleton Chronicle on the lack of a 5-year housing supply, what I don't understand is why Cheshire East has not such a figure.

Surely, they understand that it is of paramount importance for this figure to be achieved and for sufficient resources allocated to achieving it.

With quasi-legal policies such as planning, it is essential that councils work within the rules, whatever they might think of them.

It has been common knowledge for some considerable time that without this supply however it is measured, local and neighbourhood plans are of uncertain help in thwarting developers' goals.

The forces for development, especially residential come from the availability of "suitable" land, here often of previous agricultural use.

Without a strong legal framework preventing the development of such land, developers will always look to use their considerable resources to develop it.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Peter Hirst

Middlewich