Developers target and ruin attractive villages

SIR – As Elena Mannion (Letters, September 21) suggests, it’s not just in the South-east that villages are subjected to destructive housing development on Green Belt land.

In our village in Inverclyde no fewer than four developers, three from England, are attempting to gain planning permission on six sites encircling the village.

We already have a population of 4,500, which has increased in the past 30 years through three significant, and several infill, housing developments. If the further sites are developed we face a further population increase of 2,000.

Our village has been described as “delightful” – the southern approaches as possibly the best in Scotland. At the core of the village are stone-built Victorian and Edwardian houses which, together with the surrounding countryside, create this charming atmosphere. It is not complemented by the brick additions from the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

What can small villages do to protect themselves from aggressive developments? If they go ahead, the very attractiveness that brings the unwelcome attention of developers will have been destroyed. When it’s gone, it’s gone for ever. Speculators simply move on.

We all need protection from destructive incursions by speculators whose deep pockets enable them to outspend small communities easily in the planning appeals process. Michael Stanley

Kilmacolm, Renfrewshire

SIR – I appreciate Elena Mannion’s point that villages should not be overrun by thoughtless, greedy development. But there is a need to define Green Belt more closely. In a recent decision by the development control panel of Windsor and Maidenhead – the council that controls Theresa May’s constituency – an application to build a new hospital in Ascot was approved by 12 to 1, despite the planning department recommending refusal, mainly on Green Belt grounds.

The question was asked whether it is more important to save trees or lives. As it happens the so-called “green” site was an almost inaccessible mass of scruffy trees and brambles.

After construction, the rest of the site will be landscaped, open to the public and preserved as a “Suitable Alternative Natural Greenspace”. Duncan Rayner

Sunningdale, Berkshire