Madam, Councillor Jarvis completely misinterprets my comments about the proposed housing development near Caradoc Court in Sellack, which you reported in the Gazette of August 19th. I did not infer that the planning consent for this development had been granted by the present Herefordshire Council. In fact, all I inferred in your report was that I was delighted with the progress of our online petition, and that we would shortly be sending it off to various political figures. Indeed, the choice of comments left by signatories was left to the Editor of the Gazette.

Everyone in Sellack knows that the original consent was granted in 1995 by South Herefordshire District Council. Incidentally, there were plenty of objectors then whom SHDC chose to ignore.

What makes us really angry is the way Herefordshire Council is handling the matter now. They have tried to discourage all proposals for alternative solutions, including the offer of a land swap, which would compensate the site owner and protect the development site, without incurring a cost to the council tax payer.

What is much worse is that they are not even proposing to insist the developer submits a scheme of landscaping before beginning to build. The consent given in 1995 required this to help limit the effect of the houses on the landscape. It leaves us wondering what is going on.

Finally on a point of information, Councillor Jarvis is quite wrong about the listing of the Court. English Heritage will confirm it is not grade I (examples of which would be Buckingham Palace, York Minster and the Royal Albert Hall!) but grade II*.

This sort of error will not surprise the many people from Sellack and surrounding parishes who attended the open meeting called to discuss the issue on November 26th last year. Several of the local county councillors present, presumably there to add weight to their friend and colleague's cause, including the councillor for the ward that includes Sellack, appeared not even to know that the parish was in a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty!

Anyway, I would like to thank Councillor Jarvis, as Cabinet Member responsible for planning matters, for putting the record much straighter than any of us could imagine.

John Gartside, Sellack