I MAY well be invoking the wrath of Mr Hancock (letters March 27) in my response to his correspondence but the ideas put forward in the Ely Master Plan will, if implemented, have a profound effect on the quality of life that he and many other residents cu

I MAY well be invoking the wrath of Mr Hancock (letters March 27) in my response to his correspondence but the ideas put forward in the Ely Master Plan will, if implemented, have a profound effect on the quality of life that he and many other residents currently take for granted.

The document's main thrust is the unashamed endorsement that a Southern Bypass will, if it is to be believed, solve all of Ely's traffic problems. While this could marginally help Ely it would be to the detriment of the entire district, as freight hauliers would undoubtedly use it as a rat run to avoid the over subscribed A14 trunk route. There has never yet been a road scheme constructed that did not generate more traffic.

However, the building of such a structure is not within the gift of a district council, but the administration, in collusion with the county council, believe the document to be a vehicle that will sway central Government into funding such a project. Something they have rejected twice already on the grounds of expense and with the gathering economic austerity, highly unlikely to consider for some time to come.

Tories on the district council are keen to support the idea and in their desire to fund the project are proposing a massive expansion in house building around Ely. Much more than the sustainable numbers put forward in the Regional Spatial Study.

Where is the logic in a recent campaign that was fought through the columns of this newspaper vociferously repudiating the need for more housing at Mereham when the Tories now invite with open arms even more housing in Ely without the necessary infrastructure to support them?

The residents of East Cambs are having foisted on them a document that is packed with supposition, contradiction and outright omissions to reality. It is to be hoped anyone interested enough in reading it will not be seduced by its content when they get the opportunity to comment on its substance during the consultation process that is about to commence.

It will be the only opportunity available for those unwilling to see the amenity they now enjoy vanish under the influx of even more unaffordable housing and the tide of truckers thundering along roads not built to take them.

CLLR NEIL MORRISON

Littleport West Ward

East Cambridgeshire District Council