WITH reference to your report on the latest developments in the Bromfield Road housing development scheme ( Ludlow Advertiser , July 24), we have to hope that the government has more sense than Shropshire Council planning department and firmly kicks out this ludicrous plan.

The site would have been regarded as eminently suitable for a gulag in the old Soviet Union, where inmates were despatched in the hope that they would conveniently die. But it is hard to see what other attraction it might have. It floods – has done so in fact for the last two winters on the run (I live in the sight of it). It is surrounded on four sides by a sometimes dangerous river, a major railway line and the A49 trunk road. A potential death trap for children.

Without tediously repeating arguments I have given previously, the bridge mentioned would not in fact link up with any other relevant parts of Ludlow other than a small playing field across the river, and would need to be almost 250 metres long in order to clear the River Corve and its approaches.

The run-off of rainwater from the development would potentially result in flooding problems both up and down stream in Ludlow.

If the current situation does in fact result in Shropshire Council incurring heavy financial costs, then in my opinion the major share of the responsibility rests with the officers of the planning department.

If they had discussed with objectors, who actually live in the area concerned, the points which we were raising, then some of the disadvantages might have been more apparent to them them than they seem to have been.

I suggest the planning officers try to get a grip on reality, and also do a serious rethink of their current policy, which apparently is not to respond to any comments from the council tax payers who employ them.

JOHN BARRATT

Fishmore View

Ludlow