We need flexibility to meet housing needs

Your letters

I am honoured to have had my remarks to the B&NES Council Scrutiny panel quoted in your piece on avoiding complacency over coronavirus. However, what I said was taken out of context, the context being the report covering housing needs and the pressures on schools.

The problem is that the report took a rather static view of things when we need flexibility, imagination and dedication to meeting our residents’ needs, even though Bath with its ageing population and astronomical house prices (from the point of view of a young family or a health worker) has very different needs from rural areas of North East Somerset, whether they are within easy commuting distance of Bristol or not.

Several things we do know. Officers underestimated the need for school places after the millennium, and I fear they are doing the same again, given the problems the current Mendip Local Plan will create in Westfield-midsomer Norton if they are passed by the planning inspector. Secondly, B&NES state schools have an excellent reputation, and the trend for families to move out of London and elsewhere to settle here, and commute to work is likely to increase, as Covid has made people accustomed to working from home as much as they can. Thirdly, a national trend of “Covid refugees” has been detected by the national association of estate agents. Cumbria and North Lanarkshire would seem to be exceptions to a general situation of low infection rates in rural areas.

The point I was trying to make is that we have to ensure that we get the right number of houses built, of

the right size and price for our residents with the right support for our schools, and using out-of-date planning data from Radstock or the MOD site or wherever will not help. Eleanor M Jackson (Cllr) B&NES Council Labour Group spokesperson for housing and planning in a personal capacity