LAST week you invited the public to say what they thought of the proposed Chesterton housing development but in order to respond you had to buy a copy of the Standard and post your comments on a reply slip that is not much bigger than a postage stamp.

In the same issue you reported on a proposal for 88 homes by Great Gable Ltd which is, in effect, an extension to the Chesterton proposal, but in this case you have already carried out a poll on your website which shows that 68 percent of respondents are not in favour.

To be consistent, and to obtain any meaningful results, would it not have made sense to combine both surveys on your website?

I think it should be evident by now that the majority of Cirencester residents feel that the Bathurst proposal is totally out of scale with the size of the town and will inevitably put an unacceptable strain on our already over-stretched public services.

Cuts in local authority spending have already resulted in the loss of services for the community in Cirencester.

In recent years we have seen the closure of the only two day centres in the town that catered for the elderly, disabled and those with learning difficulties.

There are also proposals to reduce full-time staffing of the fire station.

Car parking provision in the town is inadequate and, contrary to the developers’ claims, the proposed new housing is not within easy walking distance of the town centre.

It seems obvious to anyone who has seen Cirencester expand over the last 20 years that the town is not able to cope with further expansion of this size.

However, this proposal presents an easy option for the planners who continue to ignore public opinion and say they must have ‘evidence’.

The only people with a vested interest in the Chesterton Development are Lord Bathurst and CDC Councillors who do not live in Cirencester and are opposed to the housing allocation being fairly distributed throughout Cotswold District.

As predicted, this proposal, and the delay in producing the Local Plan, is now attracting more developers who obviously see this as good opportunity to climb on the Bathurst Bandwagon – or should I say Gravy Train?

With regard to your question: ‘Do you support plans for up to 2350 new homes in Chesterton Cirencester?’ You can register my vote as a ‘NO’.

DAVID RYAN-AINSLIE

Cirencester