I REALLY couldn't believe my eyes when I read the headlines on the front page of last week's Okehampton Times.

Those of us who have lived and brought up families in West Devon know only too well how hard it has been over the years to get affordable housing for local people.

I became involved in tenant participation in 1993 because I wanted to keep our homes under West Devon Borough Council management and not hived off through compulsory competitive tendering. However, the more I got involved, the more councillors convinced me they wouldn't be able to build new houses for thoses in need, so I put my efforts into helping to establish West Devon Homes.

I am now a Tenant Trustee on the board . I really did expect the company would get the co-operation of the councillors of West Devfon Borough Council to help fulfill our aims which is to provide affordable housing in West Devon.

No doubt North Tawton Council would have welcomed some developers who would provide luxury housing which their constituents could not possibly afford.

Had the planning officers seen any safety hazards in the plans I could understand them being rejected, but I do strongly object to West Devon Homes being linked to 'Slum Homes'.

It is true to say I had a vision of the move to a housing company might act as a leveller and we could lose the dreadful stigma that some people hold on 'council house tenants'. Nevertheless, I can assure your readers that board members, officers and staff take their job seriously and have put a lot of time thought and effort to the kind of homes they want to see built. But we do need the support of the community if we are to fulfill our aims.

Margaret Tucker

6 The Croft

South Zeal

I was disappointed to learn that West Devon Homes intends to appeal against the council's decision regarding their proposed development in Barton Hill, North Tawton.

As Mr Davies knows, successful development is a partnership process. A partnership between the Housing Association, its customers and the communities it operates in.

Their development failed because West Devon Homes failed to work with the community in North Tawton. The town council is working hard with the residents of North Tawton to identify the planning needs for the town and I am sure that the council would be happy for West Devon Homes to have a role in this process.

West Devon Homes cannot expect to propose developments willy-nilly without reference or dialogue to the local community. They have failed to demonstrate how their proposals meet the needs of older tenants or large families (the two groups who really need housing in North Tawton), or show that their proposed design offers the best value to the town in anything other than the short-term.

Justifying the standard of the proposed development as being better than some poor standard housing is a cynical way to behave. It is not a justification for wasting time and money crusading against a planning decision it does not like instead of working with the community in identifying and delivering the housing needs of North Tawton into the next millennium.

That would be a really successful outcome rather than gaining permission to stick up another pile of two-bedroom boxes.

Colin Dyson

Fore Street

North Tawton

Perhaps John Kinsey, and others with like 'minds', would like to write in and explain why these social houses would become potential slums of the future. Is it because they are not 'owner-occupied', and therefore would automatically become slums? I don't think so! Perhaps these people should wake up!

I live in a home owned by a housing association. It is a nice three-bed detached modern house. I do not consider it will be a potential slum of the future. I would not allow that.

All social type housing has to be maintained. They will be externally decorated every four years, including paintwork/fences etc. The heating has to be kept up to standard. Repairs have to be carried out. Dampness if it exists has to be dealt with. This does not happen in slums. How can these places become slums if they are maintained as they have to be as stated in the tenancy agreement?

You could go and buy a privately owned house that was never ex-council etc and they could well be, and plenty are, in a 'slum' like condition. Damp problems, bad wiring, bad roofs, draughty windows, poor drainage, cramped up old terraced houses which haven't been decorated for years.

I suggest that John Kinsey takes his rose coloured glasses off and looks at real slum problems — he really won't find many around here. Try looking in inner city areas where there are real problems, and Third World countries.

My real suspicion is that it is the 'snob appeal'. Well, for your information, these people who live in social housing do happen to work in the same places locally as those who don't live in social houses. We are not altogether a different breed. There are some, of course, that are not working for various reasons, but the same can be said for 'owner-occupied' as well.

Ann Clarke

Address supplied