Letters: Plans will damage our rural community

We, being residents of Goosnargh and Whittingham, are opposed to the raft of planning proposals and applications currently being submitted for new build developments in our village, for which there has been no consultation.

We believe that these plans are ill-conceived, badly researched, misleading and will be severely damaging to our rural community, which must be protected. We would also challenge why developers are insistent on building on green field sites when brown field sites, such as the Whittingham Hospital site, are readily available?

Our community is coming together to fight these plans and formal objections are currently being lodged with Preston City Council.

We have basis for a vast number of legitimate concerns regarding volume of traffic and road safety, access to all proposed sites, already strained public amenities, emergency service vehicle access, oversubscribed schools, the destruction of natural habitat for the wildlife native to our area, increased crime rate, drainage and sewage and loss of rural identity. And the list most certainly goes on.

More importantly however, the article fails to mention that this proposal is just one of several that are ongoing for our area which, if all were approved, would result in the construction of over 2,000 new homes, effectively quadrupling the size of our small village.

We are surrounded by new developments, either completed or under construction, in neighbouring towns and villages within a three to four mile radius, so how can there possibly be a legitimate need for a further 2,000 houses in this area?

The proposals are motivated by profit, and NOT motivated by any perceived benefit to existing residents, either now or in the future.

It has also become clear that Preston City Council is powerless to intervene due to their failure to produce a five-year housing plan.

Even if these plans are rejected the first instance, it is entirely likely that developers will appeal this decision and be granted approval, due to lack of funding to cover the appeal process.

These developers and consultancies are essentially holding Preston City Council to ransom and capitalising on this loophole which is abhorrent and exploitative.

We want to make it abundantly clear that we will be fighting ALL of these proposals at all levels, up to and including Central Government, to change a fundamentally flawed system where developers can dictate the future of our rural communities for their own commercial gain.

Michelle Woodburn

Founder of Facebook group Goosnargh & Whittingham against Overdevelopment (written on behalf of the group)

nhs

Tories to blame

Why is it that every time we have a Tory Government, Chorley loses its A&E? It happened under Thatcher, continued under Major and has happened under May.

Could it have something to do with the fact that the Tories have held no power in Chorley since Den Dover and it is on the cards that it will happen again?

Is Chorley being punished for having the audacity to vote Labour in election after election?

Peter Barker

via email

society

Barrier to integration

Boris Johnston has been criticised for his problem with the veil, but he did not go far enough.

We should follow the Danes and ban it.

It is a barrier to integration and an affront to feminism, as many Muslim women are wearing it for family honour.

The Government seems intent on creating more faith schools, but to encourage integration we need to have more secular schools where different faiths can mix.

CB

Fulwood

society

Postal services

I wonder if the postal services will disappear within the next 10 years?

We have direct debit, no cheques and card-only stores opening, will we need stationery items, stamps and greeting cards?

I remember red phone boxes at every street corner, police and AA roadside boxes, switchboard offices and sending telegrams to say we had arrived safely in Scarborough for our holiday.

Now people send a photograph of the hotel by mobile phone, carried in their coat pockets.

I prefer a personal friendly service.

What do readers think?

Tarquin Holman

Address supplied

politics

Embarrassment to this country

Why is David Cameron so silent on Brexit? He got us in this mess by ordering a referendum in the first place. To me, his strategy was as fundamentally flawed as Tony Blair’s military misadventures in Iraq.

Both are a national embarrassment to this country.

Sally Todd

via email