TIM Charsley’s letter last week quite rightly expressed support for more affordable housing in Cotswold district. But these affordable homes should be built where they are needed.

For the 551 applicants in Cirencester, Cotswold District Council proposes to allocate 50 per cent of the 3,387 homes planned, three times as many as those needed.

Yet in another settlement in the North Cotswolds there are 38 applicants, considerably more than 50 per cent of the 59 homes allocated.

Only about half the settlements in the Local Plan have sufficient affordable homes for the number of applicants for affordable rented housing, as recorded by the housing department of CDC, allowing for 50 per cent of new homes to be affordable (Freedom of Information request to CDC, 15382).

As Bromford Housing mentioned in their Local Plan comment, affordable housing is needed across the whole Cotswold district, where people need them.

Many of those eligible provide essential services including care, health, education, retail, travel and tourism and local government, but their low pay means they cannot afford open market purchase or rent.

An appropriate range of homes for single people, couples and families is required. To build a huge number of affordable homes at Chesterton, far more than required in the Cirencester area, is not the answer.

Or are applicants who have been brought up, with family, friends and jobs, in many Cotswold towns and villages, only to offered homes up to 40 miles away?

Inspectors have approved the Local Plan for the similar Stroud district, sharing the allocation across the district with the largest site allocation of 1,300 homes. So why does the smaller Cotswold district need a massive 2,350 at Chesterton?

JOHN NICHOLAS

Cirencester