IT is a pity that both local clergy who have commented in your pages miss the real point, and chide the objectors for failure to love their present or prospective neighbours. Even if nobody s village way of life was in jeopardy, this would be a daft place

IT is a pity that both local clergy who have commented in your pages miss the real point, and chide the objectors for failure to love their present or prospective neighbours. Even if nobody's village way of life was in jeopardy, this would be a daft place to put 5,000 houses. The Fenland air would be thick with flying pigs before the residents of Mereham all worked locally or used the planned bus services. No, if Mereham goes ahead it will simply stoke up the carbon-fuelled way of life which the Revd Dr Simon Perry deplores. That is why the Mereham site has been rejected by successive strategic planning studies, and it is why communities over such a wide surrounding area have lined up to add their objections at the inquiry. If major new housing is to reduce car use it must either be in real new towns big enough genuinely to provide a full diversity of jobs and services within their own boundaries, or be really close to somewhere like Cambridge where these exist or can be provided. If more people are housed in the middle of the countryside they, like those who already live there, will mostly have no option but to drive in order to meet the demanding schedules of modern life and fulfil their commitments to their employers and their families.

It is unfortunate if these compelling arguments against the Mereham proposal are publicly undermined by questioning the motivation of those who are putting them forward.

DAVID STAZICKER, Low Bank, Mepal