USUALLY Eileen Easthams’s letters are well informed (LT 12/3/18), but unfortunately not on this occasion in regard to the plan she refers to for 150 homes proposed on a brownfield site in Darwen.

The primary reason the officers are recommending refusal is ‘’the proposed development would result in the loss of secondary employment land and the applicant has failed to demonstrate that the land is no longer capable of beneficial use for employment purposes, contrary to Policy CS4 of the BwD Core Strategy and the provisions of Paragraph 22 of the National Planning Policy Framework’’.

In short, the council has to provide land for employment / industry purposes as well as for housing. A simple phone call to any of her local councillors could have informed her of this.

Mrs Eastham also refers to land near her property where 350 homes have been given permission. She fails to mention that this land has been earmarked for housing for donkeys years and a road planned for a similar length of time.

The road isn’t a ‘’road to nowhere’’ at all - it links Pole Lane, Priory Drive, Marsh House Lane, Holden Fold and Goose House Lane and has been planned since the St James’ estate was built in the 1950’s.

Mrs Eastham may also be surprised to learn that Cllr Davies objected to the building of the much needed affordable housing currently on site on brownfield land at Ellenshaw / Ellerbeck

Councillor Dave Smith