The admirable Inspector Thickett’s letter on the unsoundness of EDDC’s Local Plan does not include the clear and firm condemnations of EDDC’s worthless planning policies, which he made during his inspection.

He chose to highlight the central problem by focussing on such blatant shortcomings as: EDDC planning data is fatally flawed and not evidence-based; EDDC have ignored central guidelines; EDDC have failed to take note of the findings of the consultants they employed at our expense; adjoining districts have been sucked into the black hole of East Devon’s vacuous vacuum. Our beloved leader claims that the problems of adjoining planning districts, created by EDDC’s failure to cooperate with them, are evidence that there is nothing to worry about in this scathing condemnation of EDDC’s incompetence and waste.

We now know that the artificially created housing shortage (cf. Professor Danny Dorling’s recent book, All That Is Solid) cannot be solved by building on green fields.

I fear that East Devon communities are already celebrating this vindication as a victory for common sense but, thanks to the Coalition’s national planning policy guidelines (condemned by the National Trust and CPRE), this is truly a disaster for East Devon communities, giving land-banking development gangsters permission to add millions of pounds to the value of their holdings by destroying our AONB without restraint.

The day of reckoning must come in due course but will it be too late?

Robert Crick

Glenisla Terrace, Sidmouth