COUN Simpson-Laing's sentiments on high density developments in the article "Housing Limits Plea Rejected" would have been most welcome had they not had such a hollow ring to them.

It is not only the city centre that suffers from bad planning decisions.

Thanks to Coun Laing and fellow Labour Coun David Horton on the rural west York planning committee, who voted in favour of the development in Horseman Lane, residents in Copmanthorpe are witnessing three-storey houses being built on a plot near the centre of the village which completely overshadow neighbouring properties.

According to government guidelines, which say there should be between 30 to 50 houses per hectare, this plot should have only two houses and not the three being built.

So if this isn't high-rise, high-density housing, what is and how did this development get passed by Coun Laing?

I echo Coun Reid's comments on looking at every development in context and the protection that should be afforded by local and national planning guidance and I wish that it were true. But it isn't, as the Horseman Lane development clearly demonstrates.

I suggest both Councillors Laing and Reid visit the site on Horseman Lane and see for themselves that the planning committee got it badly wrong and that perhaps they should have listened more to what local councillors and residents said.

The fact is that local village statements, objections by parish councils and the wishes of residents are placed a poor second to that of government targets and developers' profits.

David Smith,

Church Street,

Copmanthorpe, York.

Updated: 09:41 Wednesday, November 30, 2005