YOU couldn't make it up could you?

North Somerset District Council is planning an illegal 9,000 house development to be called Yanley, on the edge of Bristol by Ashton Vale. I call it illegal because, the council is planning to build 9,000 homes on green belt land, while still refusing local residents' plans for a new conservatory or a granny flat – because they are on green belt land!

Currently, the rules say you can't build on green belt land, other than in certain exceptional cases and under strict controls. The Secretary of State's decision to possibly release local authorities from this requirement is currently under consideration after a brief, heated public consultation. No decision is expected from her until sometime in the spring.

So North Somerset is jumping the gun somewhat, unless it knows that the whole Regional Spatial Strategy consultation was a total sham. I wonder what the environmental lawyers, the Local Government Ombudsman and the Audit Office would have to say about that?

Then the council compounds matters by not bothering to tell the public about a local exhibition of its plans. Finally, it decides to hold this exhibition in a different county.

I say – start again and this time do it properly.

It'll save time in the long run and, above all, it's the honest way to do things.

Ron Morton, Shortwood Green Belt Campaign, Mangotsfield.

THANK you to Jacquie Stephens from the Save Our Green Spaces campaign for pointing out the inaccuracies in Roger Berry's recent letter.

At this time, it is vital that all parties work together to fight the Government's plans to build on the local green belt. It is a shame then that the Labour MP for Kingswood has chosen to attack those who wish to save the green belt, rather than his own Government which is proposing to concrete over it.

I have worked with local communities in Kingswood, holding several public meetings in Mangotsfield, Oldland Common, Warmley and Bitton, as part of the No Way To 33k campaign. The petition I organised was signed by thousands of local residents, and it has been a pleasure to attend the many events that local campaigners – independent of any party – have organised to highlight the danger to our green belt.

There are, however, some important facts that he unfortunately ignored. Dr Berry claims that South Gloucestershire council is in favour of the Regional Spatial Strategy.

Yet all three parties on the council, including its Labour MPs, did in fact vote on July 23 to express "its dismay at the Government's decision to designate an unelected quango as the Regional Planning Body and strongly believes that strategic planning powers should be returned to democratically elected local councillors, who are best placed to decide the volume and location of housing developments in their area".

It seems that unlike Dr Berry and his Government, who wish to keep Regional Planning Bodies and the Regional Spatial Strategy, his fellow Labour councillors do not.

Chris Skidmore. Prospective Conservative MP, Kingswood.