DAVID FARNSWORTH said he was disappointed that while my colleagues and I heard from residents in Haxby about concerns over lack of green spaces at a public meeting on February 5, the council’s planning committee decided to allow the building of more homes on some of Haxby’s green space the next day (Letters, February 14).

I have my own view on certain planning applications and I sometimes express this publicly, but I have no influence over planning decisions.

I am not a member of any planning committee and these committees cannot be whipped. Planning permissions are either granted or rejected based on planning law alone and sadly the law does not allow public opinion to be taken into account.

The Government has even said all planning applications should be presumed in favour.

However, if we had a local plan in place, this would allow the protection of green spaces from developments, but to do so, some green land will need to be chosen for housing to ensure it passes government requirements.

Coun James Alexander, Labour Leader of City of York Council