Ian Goodwin, of Moretonhampstead, chairman of Seale-Hayne Futures Group, writes:

I am glad that Nigel Canham (MDA, March 30) was able to bring the 'Clarence Estates' planning proposal for the Seale-Hayne Farm into the public domain because our community needs to be made aware of the sheer scale of this proposal.

We should all be ready to scream if it gets any further in the district's planning office than the recycling bin. For those lucky enough to have not seen it, suffice it to say that it does not leave much green space between Highweek and the Halfway Inn.

There are two important issues here that we must all understand.

1) This proposal is a purely speculative punt by a group who do not own the land involved but who (by some alleged quirk of legality) probably stand to earn a few quid if they can convince our planners that the entire 450 acres of Seale-Hayne's farm needs to be built over. As Nigel says, it is a glossy document, but so was the Sunday Sport.

2) Neither Hannahs at Seale-Hayne, nor the current owner of the farm want such development. They are keen to be involved in the TDC 20-year core-strategy and indeed are actively involved in discussions with TDC about Seale-Hayne being an important part of Newton Abbot's future. Things like this Clarence proposal just muddy the water.

Luckily, the government's Planning Framework, finalised and released last week, would appear to knock the Clarence proposal into the long grass anyway.

The framework demands local authorities to develop brown-field sites before carving up green-fields, and it also demands that major planning decisions are based on what the community wants, rather than what the planners want.

Let's hope that the community speaks up.MORE LETTERS IN OUR DIGITAL EDITION