It is sinister to stop exasperated local residents calling the council

It is not acceptable that the council should make the deadline of Wednesday, April 6 for comment on their plans to make a coach park behind Sainsbury’s instead of the existing one in Barton Road, far nearer to facilities most people arriving in Ely would want to reach.

This limitation on discussion surpasses the deviousness around Christmas 2015 with which the Barton Road plan for new houses, on what has long been the far more suitable coach parking site there, was sprung on what they hoped would be a community then occupied with seasonal preparations.

It is clear there has been much public unease about all these plans, and they need much more careful consideration.

Not least about heavy traffic in Broad Street, and the approaches to Cresswells Lane, and the implications for a proper environment for the residents of Lisle Lane, shortly to include those elderly people who will live in the McCarthy and Stone development on Peck’s present site.

The recent deadline must be extended.

We need a properly functioning, democratic council because of the way this present council is functioning, it is not surprising that the headline in The Ely Standard of March 31 announces: “Council’ pests outlawed” and reports on a ‘black list’ the council propose of names of people who persistently ring with complaints.

Maybe many of these have personal difficulties, which may include not having access to e-mail, but I suspect that many are exasperated local residents who see that democratic debate is silenced and ignored.

All councillors are to be made aware of who is on the list, without specifying the nature of their original complaint. How sinister is that?

GILLIAN TURBERFIELD

Barton Mews

Ely