Sir, – It is very disappointing to learn that the Bells may appeal against the unanimous decision of Hambleton Council to refuse planning permission for the Thornton Gate scheme.

The view shared by nearly 150 people who wrote to the council in opposition to the scheme is that the proposed location is inappropriate for a wide variety of important reasons. Two parish councils, the local ward councillor and a series of statutory consultees, including the highways department, CPRE and Natural England appear to share the same view.

We believe that all the people who have opposed it will realise that there is a need to create appropriate housing for the increasing number of elderly people living in our communities in the future.

We also know that the local development plan already accommodates those needs. To set up a new village in potentially very productive farmland set in lovely countryside far distant from adequate local services that residents would need, would be irreversible folly in the extreme.

In a recent adjournment debate in Parliament our local MP, Anne McIntosh, conveyed the message that “there should be a local plan for local people and that sustainable development should be the key, rather than inappropriate development in inappropriate places”.

In this case, the local people have spoken out forcibly against this unsustainable proposal which lies well outside the formally adopted local development plan.

Surely Mrs Bell should now drop her scheme, thereby saving everyone a lot of effort over an appeal which would cost all of us, as council tax payers, large sums of money to overcome.

WYNN GRIFFITHS Chairman, Thornton le Moor Action Group COUN IAN WOODS Chairman, Thornton le Moor Parish Council