The visual impact is described as "huge, dramatic and scary" and it was noted that the development would effectively be isolated from Daventry and therefore that it was not really an urban extension at all, but a separate rural town with a high density of housing.

All of this is of course self-evidently true, but what is amazing is that DDC and WNDC have only just reached this opinion. It seems that on Saturday, June 7, the WNDC visited the site and suddenly realised what it would be destroying if it gave the go-ahead to this hideous development.

The Danetree Village plans have been available for many years and have been debated at length and the WNDC has been formally considering the plans for well over a year.

Are we to accept that this is the first time the planners have visited the site? Is it the first time members have actually seen for themselves the countryside to be covered in concrete? Have they only just noticed that there is a big hill between Daventry and this huge housing estate? Have they only just noticed that the estate would be visible from across the county and ruin the best views in Northamptonshire?

If it was too much trouble to visit the site, they could have logged onto the website daventrycalling.org which has some excellent aerial views and panoramic photos of the area to be destroyed.

The sudden revelation the planners appear to have had may not be what it seems. The WNDC has taken over responsibility for local planning, but the area in which it has authority to act was defined by parliament; Danetree Village plans extend well beyond this.

The WNDC therefore probably doesn't have the authority to approve or disapprove the plans and, had it done so, it may have been legally challenged. For this reason the developers probably had no option but to take their application to appeal.

The problem is that even if the Planning Inspector does not approve of the plans, the secretary of state will have the final decision in this case because refusing the application will have an impact on the Government's house building target. The Government may therefore approve the development despite opposition from the WNDC and DDC!

M P Jenkins
Norton