I WOULD like to know just who are these independent assessors who have “found a requirement for additional housing”...to cater for a “growing population” in St Helens.


The ‘Local Plan’ seems to be to be the very opposite of proper town planning. By offering up the Green Belt to development, the council is rolling over in front of the developers and saying: “Do what you want”.

 
Town planning must be about looking after the needs of its residents first and foremost.  

That means making sure there are enough school places, decent shops, enough doctors and dentists; and also ensuring that people can get to work or school without traffic delays or health problems caused by traffic fumes.

It also means fostering a sense of community which will be destroyed as houses and workplaces are pushed further and further out of town.


The only way the population of St Helens will grow to the extent described in the plan is if the town becomes one vast commuter housing estate for the whole of the North West.


All development should be about regenerating the town centre to make it again a place where people want to live, work and do their shopping.


Lorna Lyst, Newton