I READ with interest the article about Bradwell and Pattiswick residents being given the green light by Braintree Council to have a referendum on proposed development plans in their villages (“Village referendum to give say over housing” Times, March 21).

In the article, Cllr Lynette Bowers-Flint, boss of housing and planning, is quoted as saying: “Neighbourhood planning is all about giving small local communities the power and influence to shape the way its local area develops."

The previous evening I attended a planning meeting in Braintree where Cllr Bowers-Flint, having previously been a member of the cabinet which agreed to sell the access strip of land necessary for the development for a large sum of money, approved the planning application by Bellway for the development at Gimsons where 78 dwellings are proposed.

There were a large number of Witham people there to object to the plan and a petition against it has gained a significant number of signatures.

Nevertheless the people of Witham are not to be allowed “to shape the way their local area develops”.

What our elected representatives did or did not do on our behalf in 2014 is neither here nor there.

I put my hand up to not scanning the planning applications in the papers every week but what matters is the here and now.

The people of Witham do not want this development and certainly not in this density.

A total of 78 dwellings does not mean just 78 cars, it means 156 or 200 and thinking that people will walk everywhere is pie in the sky.

Look at the Maltings Lane development and the way cars have to park all over the pavements because some planning genius decided everyone would walk to work, the station, the shops, the nursery etc.

The air pollution caused by cars has now been proven to have a significant effect on the health and brain development of children.

What about the elderly residents of Helen Court who will now have that traffic idling outside their windows as it struggles to get out to Maldon Road?

What about the children who will no longer walk to and from school through the park because of all that traffic?

Witham area councillors Wilson and Kilmartin are to be commended for speaking up against their planning colleagues but Braintree Coucnil will not be forgiven for this environmental vandalism.

Just as Bradwell and Pattiswick residents have united to take control over their environment and what happens to it, district councillors may yet be surprised by what grassroots opposition can achieve.

Fenella Hardie

Barwell Way, Witham