COUNCILLOR Waterhouse (Letters, October 12) seldom resists the temptation to make party political capital, even out of issues where party politics have no place, viz the determination of planning applications
Some of your readers may wonder why it is only now that his political group is the smallest on the council that he should advocate 'curbing' the elected planning committee whilst implicitly allowing unlimited access by unelected pressure groups.
I couldn't possibly comment, save to say that I do not remember his calling for any such 'curbs' when his group was the largest.
His nakedly party political letter contrasts starkly both with my measured response to Councillor Roy Connelly's reasonable and non-partisan letter (Times, October 5) and with Cllr Connelly's letter itself. I leave it to your readers to guess what Cllr Waterhouse's agenda may be.
The facts remain as I stated them: the procedure was never intended to admit unlimited numbers of public speakers at planning committee meetings; there has been a problem with this recently, and it falls to me as chairman to deal with it. I still think that I have done so fairly and so (I am given to understand) do most of those affected.
R W Mathew
Chairman of the
West Devon
planning committee