SIR — At last week's planning committee meeting, West Somerset Council approved an application for five units of affordable housing in Crowcombe.

The committee recognised the application was contrary to significant settlement and environment policies contained in the West Somerset Local Plan (adopted April 2006).

However, approval was based on other 'material considerations' of proven need, the history of lack of alternative or viable sites, and the greater weight attached to providing homes for local people than to the protection of the natural environment, the site being situated in open countryside in the AONB.

While it was clear members were understandably predisposed in favour of affordable housing, the conduct of the meeting, discussion and debate, was open and even-handed.

The most compelling part of the meeting, which prompted me to write, was the public participation of three local people who spoke with conviction and passion in support of the scheme and the need for affordable housing.

They deserve our congratulations - appearing before a committee can be a daunting experience.

The parish council, represented by its chairman Mrs Jane Chipp, while equally in favour of affordable housing, could not support the scheme due to its inappropriate location, breach of important planning policies and the potential for alternative sites that would better deliver a sustainable community.

It is important to realise that it is West Somerset Council which has constrained the delivery of affordable housing in rural areas for the past 20 years by its historic failure to recognise the need to incentivise landowners by allowing some market housing as a quid pro quo for affordable housing.

This would have facilitated the release of many affordable sites, including brownfield sites, in sensible rural locations.

The new Crowcombe Parish Council is intent on developing a Neighbourhood Plan (under the Localism Bill), which for the first time will provide all sections of the community a genuine voice in deciding the nature, type and location of development in their neighbourhood.

The government-sponsored Building and Communities Programme has already indicated its willingness to provide some consultancy funded support to help with the process.

Crowcombe could not be a better example of a vibrant and progressive rural community.

Notwithstanding, it is important to acknowledge and to thank Roz Gill for her willingness to offer her small piece of land in Crowcombe, whatever the planning pros and cons of the site, and to recognise that we could not ask for a better housing association to build these five new homes for local people than Falcon Housing Ltd.

Roy Harbour.

Hollywell,

Crowcombe