SIR - I have read, today, the letter from C Clarke in the Sidmouth Herald.

I would like to add my comments, too, in support of what he/she said.

I completely agree with them as we, too, as a family are affected by what is going on, not only do we live almost next door to this development, we also have four daughters from 17 to 28, between my husband and I, with only the youngest at home. The remaining three have been forced into the private rental system as East Devon council has no plans to house single women without children, no matter how long they have been on the housing list.

I find this extremely difficult to understand, when you have three young women, all working, all paying taxes, willing and able to pay rents and council tax and, yet, they will not even be considered for ‘affordable housing’ or a council-owned property, until they produce offspring, which none of them want to do, nor can afford to do, as they are paying extortionate private rents.

We, as a family, would like to see the current allocation for housing scheme re-worked to be fairer to everybody, married or un-married, local or not, childless or not, so that everyone can have a fairer chance of living either in a council flat/house or being able to purchase one of the new builds, at a reasonable price, that reflects local wages, and not something that can only be realistically purchased with a London wage packet.

Janet Fowler

via email