Threat to town

SIR - In last week’s Herald there was a headline that read ‘Jobs and homes bid in balance’, indicating that there was a threat to employment and homes in Sidmouth. In the article you state that Councillor Stuart Hughes spoke out about creating an employment site between Sidford and Sidbury and proposed that this development should be sited off Woolbrook Road instead.

What Councillor Hughes fails to realise is that the majority of people in Sidmouth do not wish to see the outskirts of the town scarred by an industrial estate or more house building on these sites or any other.

The East Devon District Council plan is for 5 hectares (12 acres) of new industrial development and 150 more homes.

Sidmouth has much unused employment land that should be utilised before any new areas are needed and, over recent years, the town has seen 600 new homes either built or being built.

If you do not wish to see the beautiful countryside around our town devoured by concrete, or see your property devalued as a result of this sort of development, contact your town councillors and district councillors and let them know your views.

Bad things happen because people allow them to happen by not letting their thoughts be known.

Alan Weaver

Sidmouth