Jackie Hooper, of UKIP Newton Abbot, Coombesend Road, Kingsteignton, writes:

I would really like to know what the government is trying to achieve with the current planning policy. Teignbridge Council's last planning meeting is a good example of what I mean.

The Penns Mount plans came up for discussion it would appear as if all local councillors and nearly all local residents are against this plan. But the committee have had to defer their decision in a desperate attempt to find a legal way of refusing this application.

This is a crazy situation. why can't our locally elected representatives just refuse because that is what the public want? They have to follow the rules set down by government, it would seem.

The government is saying that we must build more and more houses. Well, there has been no sudden baby boom in the area and we are not being flooded with refugees from France and there are not hoards of people living on the streets.

If my own street is any guide, I can tell you that there are plenty of empty rooms in houses with three or more bedrooms but only one or two people currently living there, so I would say we already have a fair amount of spare capacity.

As we currently import roughly 40 per cent of our food would it not be wiser to keep these beautiful fields as agricultural land and perhaps use empty houses that are left idle in other parts of the country instead?

If we do honestly have a problem locally with a growing population, perhaps we could look at other ways to solve it.

Scrapping the council tax reduction given to second homes, paying child benefit to the first two children only or encouraging people to rent out empty houses or rooms should be options to consider.

Building ever more houses without the extra roads, schools, hospitals etc. to support the larger population seems like a foolish way to carry on to me. They appear to have been doing the same thing for years.

Why do they keep following the same old ideas and making life more unpleasant for the people of this country year after year?

Good luck to our local councillors in finding a way to stop this development and please find the courage to say no. it is after all what the public wants.THIS AND OTHER LETTERS IN OUR DIGITAL EDITION