You quoted from Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, MP for Cotswold, (Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard, December 3) as saying that the number of houses for Chesterton “should be reduced to 2000”, and that the “50% affordable ..would be too high”.

Taken together these two statements imply that our MP would see more large houses for the well-off and less for aspiring home owners and tenants. Where I wonder is this coming from?

His own Conservative Party supported the Localism Act 2011 whose purpose was to ‘facilitate the devolution of decision-making powers from central government control to individuals and communities’.

Indeed, David Cameron himself has made much of empowering local communities. The Cotswold District Council, a majority Conservative elected body, has proposed a very necessary policy for the Cotswolds.

Their plans steer housing towards Cirencester and away from the smaller towns and villages, and deliberately set a reasonable target for ‘affordable’ housing within that development, especially given the unstoppable rise in house prices throughout the rest of the area.

Demographics also indicate a problem for the future without a bias towards younger residents, with the recently published information for Stow that the population over 65 is 32% compared with 16% for England as a whole (Stow-on-the-Wold Community Strategic Plan 2010-2015).

This pattern is probably emerging in many places throughout the Cotswolds. It appears then that Mr Clifton-Brown is in opposition to the policy of an elected local community body and is unable to see the problems facing his own constituency. Is this perhaps that he doesn’t even have his only residence in the Cotswolds?

Maybe he, like many with homes or houses elsewhere, has a different agenda to those that actually permanently live and work here.

It is essential that the 50% of ‘affordable’ housing is adhered to at Chesterton regardless of the actual number of houses built there.

TIM CHARSLEY Hakeburn Road Cirencester