Kevin Pyne, of Lake Street, Dartmouth, writes:

I went to are beloved Guildhall recently to hear the various parties concerned with the proposed Millwood Homes development which is not that short of the size of Townstal as it stands now. I came away thinking are we mad?

There are no jobs in the area or the infrastructure that warrant the properties nor, for the foreseeable future, are there ever going to be such jobs.

It would seem that the development is reliant on, of all things, high-speed broadband, as if it was the panacea for a brave new world and the be all and end all of everything.

By all means build houses that have room for an office and computer suite, but is that not what the whole world will be doing, as it seems to be the standard answer for all ills .

Why are we going wreck the countryside from here to Stoke Fleming when there is a downturn in the economy?

Already there seems to be a flood of second homes up for sale anyway.

We could end up like Ireland, with vast estates of unfinished homes, built for speculative gain, and now lying empty, with no prospect of it ever being different .

Or will they end up being low cost homes or social housing, so attract yet another cleft of the socially challenged from one or another inner city who might then cause all manner of problems?

It was also a little off-putting to hear the district council's representative talking about compulsory purchase as it were a matter of fact type of thing.

As for my beef, why it is that they want to build on top quality agricultural land?

I think we need to remember that, as we return to a Third World lifestyle, we might also need to feed ourselves.

Farmers and farmland are precious commodities and we should not forget this

The park and ride would be miles away and what houses that did sell if the estate was ever finished would need to be large holiday homes, as the wealthy are the only ones who could make the developer's books balance.

What we locals need is to watch out for is that we don't get done over to make others a profit, which I suspect will be the case. Nor do we want to split the town into areas of even more haves and have nots.

This issue is going to rumble on for the rest of my life – and the lives of most others who are now living here – as we try to sort out schools hospitals the medical practice and the car parking, how we might access the town, pedestrianise the town and so on.

And one day, when we have everything in place, it won't be our town anymore but just like all the others.

The indigenous population, if they stay will have nothing and those who go out into the world, to make their way, will not have been able to afford to come back unless their parents die and leave them a house in which to live – one that has not been sold off to pay for retirement home fees.

I would leave as much of the town alone as I could.