Open Letter to Cotswold District Council I HAVE just received the latest Cotswold News and read and re-read the article by the cabinet member for forward planning. I find it typical of the complacency that allowed the Cotswold Local Plan to expire in 2011.

Communities up and down the district are being bombarded with proposals for housing development. Why? Because there is no local plan in place and speculative developers have seized the opportunity and declared ‘open season’ on the district.

Take Fairford as an example; if one considers the number of permissions already granted and several others in the application or pre-application stages and add to that the influx of families in the married quarters at RAF Fairford then the population of the town could increase by about 40 per cent in the next few years. Can this be described as acceptable when it is clearly not sustainable?

If this type of situation were to happen in private business with this degree of negligence then heads would roll, starting at the top!

It is no use claiming it is all the government’s fault – the new guideline contained in the National Planning Policy Framework was not published until March 27, 2012 , a year after the local plan was allowed to expire. Nor does it help to think that the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty makes up more than two thirds of the district. The council should always have been aware of the need to identify the areas suitable for meeting its housing land supply requirement.

It is true that central government does not seem to realise that the MOD is sitting on a vast acreage which is not essential for its requirements. Look no further that South Cerney airfield or part of Fairford base.

So, what for the future? The emerging local plan is unlikely to be in place before 2017, having gone through its further consultation phases and the inevitable public enquiry before it is approved by the Secretary of State. Are enough resources being committed to this to respond to the urgency of the situation? Is the Planning department fit for purpose? I don’t think so.

Instead of spending taxpayers' money in trying to defend decisions that they cannot win, why not bring in some new blood to form a robust team with the skills and energy needed to give local communities some breathing space.

GREG PHILLIPS Fairford