I WRITE regarding proposed development of the bus depot site on Heysham Road.

The proposals made for this site are extremely worrying, as the developer plans 75 apartments and houses, an extremely high density in an area where the thrust of regeneration is to reduce population density.

The proposed 75 dwellings have to be seen in the context of a potential 150 adults and 150 children moving into an area where we are short of doctors and the local schools are already over-subscribed.

It is already the case that there are no facilities for children. This will do nothing to address this problem.

The consultation meeting earlier this month was marked by the blinkered vision offered by developers, whose case is that 75 homes are better than what is already on the site and that there is no commercial alternative available.

They admit that if they cannot find sufficient purchasers then they will have to accept offers from housing associations to purchase the homes. This lack of vision needs to be challenged by the local people.

The site is not suitable for housing, and we are aware that there is no funding for a community project to be located on the site as a whole.

What is lacking is people in power prepared to think outside the box of a local plan that was imposed on the residents from above.

We do want the site developed but we do not want more housing in an already stressed area. People are prepared to wait for the right development rather than have something that residents instinctively feel is wrong for the area - and the council has the power to stop this development in its tracks if it refuses to sell the land.

Carolyn Downs, Cumberland View Road, Heysham.