AS SOMEONE who has grown up in Cirencester for the past 26 years, I am dismayed yet unsurprised to see that Cotswold District Council has voted to uphold an outdated and bureaucratic rule which prevents ward councillors from voting on planning applications that are in their own wards. 

I am under no illusion that this district is in desperate need of housing to meet current population demands, from young people desperately trying to join the housing ladder, to low-income families on tight budgets, to accessible accommodation for the disabled and elderly. 

However, this development will not, like all planning applications of this nonsensical scale, exist in a vacuum if it goes ahead. 

Every aspect of our environment and depleting social services across the Cotswolds would be permanently affected.

The rule in itself is unfair, illogical and unsustainable for the future of democracy across the Cotswolds and CDC should seriously consider scrapping it altogether.

Whatever their party, whatever their ward, whatever the opinions they have to represent, give our councillors the voice and voting rights that we pay for.

SABRINA POOLE
Cirencester