We cannot plan our lives

I want to say how incensed I am by the way Sunderland Council takes the citizens of our city for fools.

With regards to the university fields at South Bents, the council first assured us that there was no intention of building houses on that field and it wanted to change its purpose to allow horses to be kept on it.

Now, with no apology for obviously lying to us, it has announced there are to be houses built on the field.

The ‘consultation’ event was no such thing. Concerned residents turned up to hear it was a done deal.

Objections around congestion and access on South Bents Avenue were addressed by a survey carried out (via an on road counter) at a quiet period just after Christmas when people rarely go out.

So they are repeating the survey, presumably to say they have been fair.

But when do they repeat it ?

Now during the Easter holidays when the children are not being taken to school and most people take a break from going to work.

Sunderland council treat us like absolute fools – and perhaps it is right.

We are fools to live in a city that is dying because of years of poor planning.

So my family is planning to move out of Sunderland and taking its council tax elsewhere.

It is impossible for decent folk to plan their lives and bring up their families in a place when at any moment the council can pull the rug out from under them and drastically change the environment causing heartache, disruption and hardship.

I won’t even bother to talk about the physical and mental health needs of the population.

As a working mental health nurse in Sunderland for over 30 years, I know only too well how low down on the list of priorities is the health and wellbeing of residents for the council. Judith Smith