The Forester is filled with stories of people objecting to the house building numbers imposed on the district by Parliament. It is not the district council to blame but it must decide where to put them. It will be near major roads because the whole settlement pattern depends on the private car now.

The only way that such plans will be dropped is if there is mass public revolt. Opposing the plan (for instance) to develop a new town (let’s call it Carbunkle) near Redmarley by saying ‘this is not the right place’ will divide district opposition and get people accused of NIMBYISM.

We don’t want this scale of development anywhere in the district. The proposals aren’t for local people – they will be occupied by commuters.

Objections were made years ago when the housing ‘targets’ were first decided. The only way things can change is by challenging the Government calculations which are heavily influenced by developer pressure, and dubious population projections. These determine housing numbers.

In the 1990’s a number of us opposed the A40 extension road that was to run from Longford over the Severn and skirt past Newent to the M50. We knew it would drag major settlement behind it and that Newent’s acceleration as a commuter town would be even quicker than it has been with loads of new housing built on Grade 1 farming land. The ‘Stop the New A40’ campaign won – but development is still going on in Newent.

A quarter of a century ago we set up ‘Save the Countryside’ when development was proposed around Cheltenham. We had the support of the entire District Council and focussed on the Governments dubious population and housing projections. We won the argument – but still lost the battle. If you drive into Cheltenham along Tewkesbury Road today you will see the bulldozers at work.

Housing has become a major economic stimulus in a declining economy. House building generates money. There are over 100,000 planning applications that have been agreed around the country. These sites should be built on first rather than granting more. But what developers want is profitable easy to develop green-field sites.

There isn’t any real planning anymore. It is left to ‘market forces’. Once you remove the stick of regulation you have market anarchy. Because the planning system stood in the way of poorly thought-out development this Government simply tore the rule book up and crudely imposed targets.

The result? Destruction of community, inadequate infrastructure and roads saturated with cars. Nature destroyed and wildlife habitats gone forever. Decline in the quality of life follows.

Our MP has said he opposes the proposed new towns. Good. Make him fight for you.

If you don’t fight you will definitely lose. If you do fight, you may still lose BUT you will gain leverage that can build influence to protect what’s left by landscaping and better road design and the provision of decent infrastructure.

Have no sympathy with the developers. They’re only in it for the money.