Cllr Judy Pearce makes a valiant attempt to defend the indefensible that is the joint local plan. As her letter in last week’s edition illustrates ­clearly, the JLP is a top-down plan from a Conservative ­government hell-bent on ­building houses.

Far from protecting our ­beautiful countryside, it will give the opportunity for developers to build thousands of executive houses and second homes in some of our most ­sensitive areas – hardly addressing our local housing needs.

Many of our towns and ­larger villages will be swamped with extra houses, with little

or no improvement to road ­infrastructure, schools or ­medical facilities. Where are all the jobs for these new residents? Or do we want them to commute? I thought they were meant to be sustainable.

Of course we need genuinely affordable housing for our local working families, but to ­pretend we need to build the thousands of open-market homes to build just a few hundred so-called ‘affordable’ houses is simply not true.

It saddens me that local Conservative councillors, rather than fighting for the real needs of their local communities, are prepared to put their party first.

As the opposition, we will continue to oppose the wrong houses in the wrong places for the wrong people.

Julian Brazil

East Prawle

Kingsbridge