Sir.–It’s funny isn’t it that when we had a Labour/Liberal Democrat-run council, Councillor Laura James and Cllr Paul Harvey, both of Norden ward, couldn’t find reports to quote from?

A report at the time, regarding land at Old Kempshott Lane (OKL), as being a ‘greenfield site’ of the ‘best and most versatile’ was ignored. Cllrs James and Harvey both voted to have the land at OKL built on.

It was, after all, the Labour Government that imposed such high house-building targets, so obviously it suited them to build on ‘greenfield’ sites.

Now that a developer wants to build housing in the Norden ward, a site that is designated ‘brownfield’ and therefore the most suitable for regeneration, and we have a Conservative council, it’s a completely different story. Anything to ‘get one over’ on the opposition.

Let’s not forget, it isn’t just housing that is proposed for the former Lilly site, a number of jobs would be available too. To put housing within a five-minute walk of a town centre, businesses and rail/bus links is an ideal that some councils would envy.

Cllr James should be ashamed of herself – quoting from a report only when it suits. She mustn’t forget there are members of the public who can remember the planning and transportation meetings of a few years ago when OKL was on the agenda. Perhaps she’d like to quote from the Government’s own Planning Policy Guidance 3 report, below, which was much discussed then: “PPG3 was introduced to steer policy away from the development of large, spacious houses on greenfield sites, towards higher density development using brownfield or urban sites wherever possible. It also sought to compel developers to provide a greater element of affordable housing.”

–Steve Day, Old Kempshott Lane, Basingstoke.