I WAS intrigued by your article on page 7 – £1m is put towards home rental scheme (Standard, July 10), about a new development of 11 homes for rent in Bibury. What excellent news!

As I read further through the article it became apparent that Cotswold District Council was making exactly the same very good points about keeping villages sustainable as many of the respondents to their Local Plan Consultation had done last year.

Cllr Jepson said: “This new housing development will help ensure the health of this community by sustaining the school, shops and pubs.”

But this is just ONE village. Why is CDC not using this same school of thought in its proposed Local Plan?

Why is it not allocating a small number of new affordable houses to every village and town in the Cotswold District to enable ALL villages to remain sustainable?

This article simply shows CDC patting itself on the back, and attempting, yet again, to put out apparent positive news about itself.

The Standard also brought welcome news of the outcome of the Cirencester parking consultation carried out by Gloucestershire County Council. Many people responded and 95 per cent were against the proposed on-street parking plan. So the plan was dropped by GCC. Democracy at work.

Cirencester Town Council ran an excellent open consultation over its Market Place improvement plans last year and went with the majority. Again, democracy at work.

Cotswold District Council, however, ran a so-called ‘consultation’ on its Local Plan and the responses showed overwhelming opposition to the Local Plan which denies many villages much-needed new affordable housing and dumps well over 2,000 houses on one farmland site in Cirencester.

If GCC and Cirencester Town Council can operate democratically, then why not CDC?

ANNE GOLICS

Cirencester