Some of the "Growth Area Options" being looked at by this Joint Planning Unit include vast tracts of high-quality farmland.
This is madness!
Respected scientists now concede that global freezing is now more likely than global warming and this will inevitably mean that crop yields will be lower. Food shortages are already pushing up prices and Britain, which is only 60 per cent self-sufficient in food, is dangerously exposed. What makes matters worse is that we have now given away control of our agricultural policy, along with our control of immigration, to the European Union.
The last thing our tiny, overcrowded country needs are more and more mouths to feed and less and less land on which to grow food. Common sense demands that we should stop building yet more massive housing estates on the little farmland we have left.
We do not have a housing problem . . . we have a population problem!
Rod Sellers,
Ash Lane, Collingtree, Northampton.

Guided buses a waste of time
The Wayne Bontoft article on the newly-planned "guided bus system" between Northampton and Wellingborough highlights the continuing problems of the current borough council still being out of touch with both reality and the electorate who voted them into office.
My guess is the elected councillors in both borough and county councils and members of WNDC only consider cars when travelling between towns in this county. They probably don't want to use the five (yes five) regular daily bus services which run between Northampton and Wellingborough.
The county doesn't need this project carried out as it will be a complete waste of time, money and effort by all persons concerned, with the electorate picking up the bill again for something they don't want.
Of the WNDC projects listed in the article, only items three and four are really useful. Number three involves major road improvements to connect Bedford Road to Ransome Road industrial and housing development area. This would reduce traffic on the London Road and Southbridge area.
The priority with the railway station is a very necessary 2,000-bay covered, multi-storey car park at the Castle Hill end of the current car parking facility.
A D Hiam,
Rillwood Court, Lumbertubs, Northampton.

Council makes a ghost town
You really could not make it up: the sheer unhinged thinking in the development planning of the town, the latest idiocy to come out to build a "cultural enclave" behind the old County Hall. Not only is this daft as it would be hidden and difficult to get to.
The existing town centre is struggling due to the ongoing incompetence of the current and all previous councils and by driving out all the small retailers with parking restrictions and overcharging and making the streets only for pedestrians. They have made it a ghost town.
On visiting the town centre on a recent Saturday I was struck by the lack of people there. I can remember when you could not move in town it was so crowded.
Now Abington Street on a Saturday is inhabited by skateboarders, drunks and yobbos pushing everyone out of the way, without any hinderance from authority. The much-vaunted Grosvenor Centre is much the same, especially on the upper mall, yet this is somewhere that is supposed to be much in need of extension.
What is the point of having plans to bring in new shopping or cultural areas when the existing ones are not functioning properly?
Clean up the town centre by getting rid not only of the rubbish and paper everywhere but also the human trash as well. Then we can see what is there and correct all the past mistakes. Only then can we move forward.
Doug Buckle,
Kentstone Close, Northampton.

Saints at heart of community
I have to disagree with Councillor Pam Vansverry's views on the town show being taken over by the Saints just to celebrate their promotion.
Why should it matter that the Saint had no previous involvement with the show . . . talk like that merely puts off potential new investment. Anyhow, I don't recall the Lib Dems turning down the Saints rescue of the bonfire and fireworks.
The Saints are at the heart of the community in St James. Keith Barwell and his team are involving the community and local councillors in their re-development plans. I know because I was one of them.
One feature of that re-development was the purchase and then the closure of the nightclub, a source of anti-social behaviour that no longer exists thanks to the Saints and which the local community appreciate.
The success of the rugby club brings thousands of people into the area, something which many local businesses will appreciate.
I know that there are still some problems with inconsiderate on-street parking. But the Saints can't legislate for that. In any event, some residents in the Scottish streets have been telling me that there has been some improvement but there is some way still to go.
However, there is plenty of legal parking and the Tory county council should be regulating street parking . . . it has the powers. I have asked the county to use those powers. I will support them in this but what I won't support is the impending rise to £40 of the residents' parking permit and charging for visitors' permits.
So, I say to the Saints, keep up your good work in the community, every success with the Town Show and good luck in the Premiership next year.
Councillor Terry Wire
St James Division, Northamptonshire County Council.

We are facing a one-party state
No referendum for us then on the neo-Constitution of Lisbon. This line was backed by the three parties. Does this not show that us, the electorate, are faced with a one-party state? Britain is being closed down. Most of the laws passing through Westminster come from Brussels now.
In the 1970s, Harold Wilson said that we now had a written constitution: The Treaty of Rome. Our unwritten British Constitution was for recycling, along with all the parties themselves.
Standing in a local election in 1975, I wrote that they were dropping the UK like an aspirin into a glass marked the United States of Europe: that was the aim of Hitler, of course, by force of arms. But that has been Washington's policy since, especially under Kennedy, and even Eisenhower, deploying the CIA.
We avoided the dictators in the 1930s, deploying our ancient Constitution and culture.We saved the Continent then, in 1940. That is our role now.
The EU is an empire in the world of big business, where there is no asylum, everyone micro-chipped and parties verboten.
Read Evans Gollanz, While Britain Slept, 1975 and Orwell's 1984, especially if you are Labour. Vote for your country first before a party.
Edward Spanswick,
Hammerstone Lane, Northampton.

Nothing changes
I was not surprised to see that Bouverie Walk is still the favoured site for drug users.
We moved my mother from there four years ago. She had lived there 25 years and had the same problems as the residents have today.
I spent month having meetings with the local council. Promises were made but nothing happened. The police even got involved, putting up a surveillance camera.
Don't expect anything to be done because if things haven't been done in the last four years, then l don't expect anything to be done now.
E Lenton,
Osborne Road, Northampton.