I suspect his rationale for describing us as wealthy is merely perception, brought about through nothing more than rather unscientific surveys reported in the press as marking the area as prosperous.

It may surprise Mr Moore that I write this not from a position of vast wealth, but as someone living on a housing estate surrounded by offices, giant warehouses and an old landfill tip.

I am a householder with a mortgage and family to support and because I am not wealthy, I am concerned, like many others, about ever increasing bills for gas and electricity, food, council tax and motoring.

So why did I object to this development?

Simply because the local area does not have the capacity, as yet, to cope with further houses.

For example, my children are unable to go to their local school, although it is just two minutes' walk from our house.

Large numbers of residents find themselves in the same situation.

Nor can they secure places at the doctors or the dentist.

There are problems with sewage and drainage: so severe is this that some people have had this leaking into their gardens.

More tellingly, it was not only Grange Park residents that objected but many expert bodies who will have to provide the services and infrastructure too.

His point in respect of democracy was also interesting.

The decision to accept the plans was made by the West Northamptonshire Development Council, which is an unelected body with no responsibility to local people, councillors or MPs.

He would be wise to consider WNDC's status and the democracy you mention.

He may then understand why the "mob" at Grange Park want common sense and accountability to return to planning decisions.
Guy Voice,
Wake Way, Grange Park, Northampton.

Conservatives soft on terrorism
Has a new phrase now entered British politics, where, hereafter ridiculous irrational behaviour will be known as "A Touch of the DDs (David Davis)?"

It is clearly a stunt to seek to smokescreen the fact that the Conservatives would be soft on terrorism and hardly the trumpeted party of law and order.

After all the Conservatives are the party of appeasement!

Most people recognise that the Conservatives are the "Out of Touch" party, but on the Sunday before David Davis's resignation, his words on a TV interview clearly revealed how ill-informed and naive he was.

He pronounced that the 42 days maximum detention before charge was not necessary, because he claimed that the Chief Crown Prosecutor did not think it needed to be!

Can Brian Binley inform his friend Davis that the Crown Prosecution Service does not personally obtain evidence and consequently would have no idea how long it may take to obtain and process evidence.

In non-terrorist cases that come before the magistrates and crown courts, a large percentage of them take longer than 42 days from arrest to charge.

The contrast is that 98 per cent of these non-terrorist cases can have the arrested person on delayed charge, while the police inquiries and evidential processing continues, before a charge is agreed by the Crown Prosecution Service.

Britain has only latterly started to experience terrorism.

It would not be practical to delay charge, bail a suspected terrorist to his/her home and trust them not to disappear before their next delayed charge bail date to report to a police station.

Thus if we have suspected terrorists and the maximum time that they can be held before charge is 42 days what is the matter with that?

Either people accept this Government's measures to combat terrorism or they can vote Conservative to be less safe when the election comes.
David Isherwood,
Address supplied but withheld by request.

Resignation will waste money
I would like to respond to the irresponsible action of David Davis, who has recently stood down as an MP to force a by-election supposedly on the grounds of his moral convictions.

I find his action irresponsible to say the least and nothing more than a political prank to gain notoriety.

His action has just cost his local people a considerable amount of money as a by-election in relation to a parliamentary election costs a considerable amount of money and takes away the front line local government workers from their main task of running his local council and takes away valuable monies which could be spent on those in need such as the elderly, infirm and young people.

So, with that in mind, the actions of one person choosing to waste taxpayers' money, I would like to ask our local Tory parliamentary politician Brian Binley, who while in office equally wasted our money on moving roundabouts three feet at the end of St Peter's Way, what he thinks about his colleague's actions?

Does he think it is irresponsible to waste such monies to improve an ailing profile?

Further to this, what does our well-esteemed and equally headline-grabbing Labour politician Sally Keeble think about such actions?

Will her party join the pantomime or will they just back out for fear of taking another kicking by a disgruntled electorate about recent failing Labour policies?

I feel that this is further evidence that we should break the three-party state and perhaps we should move towards a more independent voice on a greater scale.
Peter Evans,
Former borough councillor, Essex Street, Semilong, Northampton.

We must support these measures
The decision of Tory MP David Davis to resign is a farce. Apart from the 42-day issue, he also states his opposition to further CCTV and the wider use of DNA.

Given that he was the shadow Home Secretary and that local Tory MP Brian Binley is quoted as saying "he has set an example to all politicians", we are entitled to conclude that the Tories do not want the fight against crime aided by greater use of CCTV and DNA.

The Chron regularly reports on demands from businesses and residents in this town for more CCTV.

Crimes which are decades old are now being solved by the use of DNA.

We should all be supporting this, not resigning in protest over it.
Geoff Howes,
Alliston Gardens, Northampton.

In awe of Essex
I would like to thank the Chronicle & Echo for featuring the stories back in 2006 and 07 of my following of singer David Essex. Since then, I have done a magazine story and also made a TV appearance relating to this.

David is on a massive tour at the moment with something like 48 dates and I'm so glad he manages to come to the Derngate each year.

I was in awe when he actually was here for five weeks at Christmas in the Peter Pan pantomine.
He will also be here again next year in May 2009 for his brand new musical All the Fun of the Fair.
Amanda Freund,
Magnolia Close, Billing Road, Northampton.

Lib Dem inaction costs town dear
The Labour Party publicly apologises to Ruth Williams for not having telepathic ability to know when her partner is "down".

The trouble is that Labour in Kings Heath, Dallington and Spencer has been campaigning consistently on issues such as a school at Dallington Grange.

The Lib Dem councillors have publicly stated that they steadfastly oppose the development in Dallington Grange.

How can they be working on the development of the school while opposing the development of the area that the school would be a part of?

In a Labour poll of almost 400 households in the area, 99 per cent said that they supported the development.

That's the kind of campaigning the Labour Party has done on the issue. What exactly have Lib Dem councillors done?

Strangely enough though, living in the ward doesn't seem to give them any advantage in representing the community as they simply don't attend meetings.

Since being elected as a borough councillor over a year ago, Councillor de Cruz has attended a paltry four council meetings and one Spencer management board.

As a result of the inaction of Lib Dem borough councillors, an event on Brookside Meadows was cancelled.

As a result of Lib Dem borough councillors' inaction the community allotment project in Dallington Fields is at risk of shutting down despite hundreds of hours of volunteer time having been invested in it.

As a result of Lib Dem inaction, the Kings Heath housing office was shut down.

Perhaps the residents of Spencer Ward deserve a rebate on their council tax from councillors' allowances?

No-one is kicking Lib Dem councillors when they're down.

The Lib Dems are just kicking the communities they claim to serve, every day.
Anjona Roy,
Dallington, Kings Heath and Spencer Labour Action Team, Northampton.