A AM glad to have Dave Goodwin?s support (Letters, November 13), support but I think he is being unduly soft on West Devon Borough Council. He says ?the decision to build these houses is our of our representatives? hands?.

Whilst agreeing that the housing targets have been imposed by Central Government, there is something the council could have done, had they the best interests of the town at heart. They could have opposed the Government?s plans, appealed against them, if necessary in a court of law and even refused to implement them

They might have lost, but they would certainly have earned our respect. And who knows they might have won the day. Instead, the council just rolled over and wagged their collective tail.

By the way, the public inquiry into the West Devon Local Plan Review has not yet published its findings and might, just might come down on the side of justice, you never know. Don?t you find it strange that the council have published their draft development brief, which includes these 300 new properties and school, before the public inquiry results are known?

Do they intend to implement the brief irrespective of the inspector?s findings? Does the whole of the council support these insane plans? Surely our own (Okehampton) representatives must see the folly of what is proposed and make their positions known.

If, as Dave suggests, the council?s reasons for the Crediton Road/Exeter Road development are to make the best of a bad situation, then I seriously doubt their moral and

professional judgement. The outcome will, together with the already massive development in the east of the town; plans for the expansion of Exeter Road Industrial Estate, with its potential rail link; and the existing heavy traffic from North Road Industrial Estate, lead to a complete reversal of the advantages of the A30 bypass which has been the saviour of the town and can never probably be repeated. It will result in traffic chaos and this lovely rural town being turned into an ugly urban sprawl.

No, the council are not making the best of a bad situation, they are capitulating their rights to make that situation better. Have I convinced Dave?

Monty Lerer

1 Saddlers Way

Okehampton