Haxby has the potential to be a village supplying York with a daily workforce to ensure it remains one of the key commercial and tourist centres in our area.

But not if the present residential housing policy of City of York Council reaches its 40-houses-per-hectare goal.

Where will all the traffic go if Haxby has 50 per cent more because of this increase in housing?

Logic dictates that the road infrastructure must be in place before significant additional housing is allowed.

Take an architect, a builder and an opportunist and give them the chance to infill some land in Haxby with a totally unsuitable housing development for a quick hit-and-run profit and what do you get?

Uproar from residents, potential flooding, loss of privacy and amenity, and additional traffic.

Is this why I voted Liberal Democrat in the last council elections?

Why are our councillors influenced by such obvious profiteering?

We elect them to represent all the people in our area, not the few who set out to exploit loopholes and less than definitive planning guidelines to undermine the longer term legitimate increase in house values which we are fortunate to enjoy.

I hope the new planning committee see through some of this commercial banditry and concentrate on the real issues of access and infrastructure.

Andy Aird,

Old Coppice,

Haxby, York.

Updated: 10:19 Tuesday, July 22, 2003