Letter to the Editor: We should support Newent in opposing plans for a large number of new homes on the edge of the town on what I assume is prime agricultural land.

Such development is taking place in all towns in the area and wherever there is ready motorway access. 

This has happened in Ross on Wye and at the Newent /M50 junction. 

Such car-based development tears communities to pieces. 

Years ago we opposed the building of the A40 to M50 link road which would have made Newent even more of a dormitory town that it now is.

Cheltenham had the same problem. The Green Belt was created to prevent Gloucester and Cheltenham merging – but the M5/A40 junction makes it a prime target for commuter-based development.

‘Save the Countryside’ was created to try and prevent it and Cheltenham Borough Council opposed it tooth and nail across political groups. But – and here’s the point - development was imposed by central government just as it has been in the Forest.

National government is the culprit here. Our local councils now have little autonomy: they are vassals for the implementation of national policies which are forever changing, and which are underfunded.

At the heart of these decisions is a view accepted at a national level by both the Labour and the Tory parties. 

They want growth at any cost – and that means an expanding population. 

By the time the decisions in principle about policy have been made it is too late to stop things happening without massive protests.

There is a choice to be made when it comes to any kind of development and in my view it has to revolve around quality of life. 

Protecting the quality of life and our communities is NOT selfish: it is a betrayal of our future not to do so.

John Webster, Lydbrook