IN A glowing report on City of York Council in the letters page of August 9, Gordon Cheapcastle shoots himself in the foot by not recognising the flaws of the local plan.

He says that commuters who are fed up living in the suburbs of West Yorkshire would come to rural York to live in the proposed new big towns – but by building on green belt land the “local plan” is doing away with that same rural aspect.

He then suggests that the proposed new towns of Whinthorpe and Skelton-Wiggington will mean improved business for local shops around the ring road – the very same ring road that is already grid-locked at peak times and unable to cope with any more traffic.

He fails to show much regard for ecologists’ concerns by dismissing the effect on the delightful Askham Bog, so I dare say he will be engaging the full wrath of the Greens with his misplaced glorification of a plan that has little to recommend it other than the dreams of Cllr James Alexander and his team.

Bob Redwood, Main Street, Askham Bryan, York.