It seems that despite the extremely large amount of people living in Bocking who protested about the large number of houses which they did not want to be built, both Braintree Council planning and the councillors that attended the meetings have allowed the plans for, I believe, 255 properties to be built, another primary school and business units to the north of Broad Road.

I believe one of the phrases used in the article in the Times (January 23) was that because Essex County Highways did not object to it, the planning department and the councillors said they had no choice but to let the application go ahead.

Well, what a pathetic excuse. After all, the decision to allow any application to go ahead lays with the planning department and therefore Essex County Highways should not been allowed to have any influence on this matter whatsoever.

Of course there are people within the district who may require somewhere to live but taking up land to build housing will never create jobs that can sustain life, what we need in Bocking is more essential shops and other things like a post office and more bus services.

Have the council thought about the ever-increasing traffic problems or the extra pressure that will be put on the emergency services, and for that matter Highways, who have to repair the potholes in the roads?

Has anyone looked at the difficulty and potential danger that exists trying to get out from Church Street on to Broad Road with the amount of traffic at present?

No, I think not, and what about the increase of traffic that approaches Galleys Corner, then?

Someone has not used their brains, starting with the planning department.

Kenneth Pallant

Church Lane, Bocking