Very few villagers that I know of care what the parish council think, so if it wasn’t there I doubt that any discernible difference would be noticed.

As the lowest tier of local government their word is hardly final, as EDDC will no doubt prove with the future approval, in some form or another, of Clinton Devon Estates’ proposal.

If I was a teenager I wouldn’t want to live in this village. It has a lot of older people who have moved to the village for a so-called better life. This entails them lording it over the people who have lived here far longer than them.

I would go as far as to suggest that without them and their pension pots the village would already be full of ‘affordable’ housing without the need to develop more.

A new doctor’s surgery is hardly an attraction for young people but it would certainly draw in the elderly.

It seems to me that the majority of opposition to the King Alfred Way development comes from the existing residents of King Alfred Way. I live far enough away not to care.

I realise that progress can’t be halted but I trust its course can be diverted more efficiently. Then again, argument and indecision is what life is all about.

Newton Poppleford is not El Dorado. Please take it as you find it, not change it to how you want it.

Ian Simmins

Little Down Orchard

Newton Poppleford