HOW much longer will it be before the community is really consulted about what development there should be and not just asked about how it should happen?

The thought that housing numbers are just handed down from on high and there is nothing that can be done about them wears thin when those who were at the Public Examination on the Regional Plan heard Swindon Borough Council ask for thousands more houses, and the developers make the case for more houses to make up for the ones that had not been built.

New roads and road improvements, which have not been consulted on, wait to be considered by the Regional Assembly this week.

Now the case appears to be being made that because so many houses are required greenfields, will have to be developed at the same time as brownfields. The Front Garden must come forward before 2011 and further urban extensions after 2011.

However, will all this be found to conflict with Government guidance which says brownfields must be redeveloped first and the aim is to reduce reliance on the car?

MRS CHARMIAN SPICKERNELL

Swindon