OPPOSITION to the proposal for 100 new homes in Strensall (The Press, December 30) illustrates the dilemma facing the city in the Local Plan policy to be decided in 2014.

Labour proposes a plan for 22,000 new homes, half on sites in the green belt, signalling to developers a willingness to see surrounding countryside built on.

You quote a planner saying that the Strensall developers would have to show “very special circumstances” why the green belt site should be developed. However, developers know this statement is meaningless in York, as the Secretary of State (Labour in 2007) approved Germany Beck and Heslington East University expansion on the basis that the benefits outweighed any harm to their location.

More recently, York planners have agreed that “very special circumstances” justified approving green belt developments at Northminster Business Park and Askham Bryan College.

This gathering rush for greenfield sites undermines developer interest in sites such as York Central that Labour say they are keen to see developed. Their focus on sites around the outer ring road is unsustainable in every sense – our infrastructure cannot cope now, and there’s no sign the money will be there to provide what would be needed.

Coun Andy D’Agorne, Green Party, Broadway West, York.