Referendum must be called on woods

With the Conservatives pledged to scrap the Labour policies that have been driving the theft of the countryside for unsustainable house building in West Sussex, as elsewhere, the pressure is on for the vested interests to get Local Plan Policy H4 forced through before the imminent general election.

The planning committee looks likely to grant last-minute planning consent, rather than wait to see the shape of the government planning policy after the general election.

When fields were similarly threatened in Tim Loughton's constituency a few years ago, he gave unstinting support to the locals fighting the threat.

Nick Herbert is currently doing the same in his constituency. So, where, one might ask, have been the statements of support over the years from Worthing West MP Peter Bottomley for those fighting the large-scale obliteration of the countryside in his patch?

Their conspicuous absence implies that Mr Bottomley is opposed to his own party's policy on building over pasture and woodland.

The Worthing West MP was an outsider to the town when elected here in 1997. Here is the prime opportunity for Mr Bottomley to demonstrate his full integration with the interests of Worthing and its electorate by calling for a public inquiry into, or a referendum on, Local Plan Policy H4 (West Durrington Development).

C.C. Knappitt

Cleveland Road

Worthing

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