Supportive

In connection with your article "Council's £2,000 error" (January 3, 2007), it is important to make clear to readers the following:-Councillors Cole and Coleman, were in particular, very supportive, professional and helpful in advising residents about planning matters. Residents including myself, followed their advice.The Ombudsman's Report found maladministration due to key communication problems, which were at source within North Somerset Council's planning department. There is an obligation that North Somerset's planning decisions are done with transparency and according to policy. In this case it was not so. The decision was made without it going to the planning committee, where it would have been debated properly together with residents' concerns. And the decision itself was made without consultation and in an abrupt manner. This point is still not answered by the current investigation of the Ombudsman, where it still remains for further consideration.The final result of this planning maladministration by the council is an eyesore that is unwanted, deleterious to the area and has caused tremendous traffic hazards to commuters and schoolchildren in the process of construction. Judicious housing development is necessary. North Somerset has targets, it is core to its agenda; but building in back gardens is not a good solution for anybody. The only people that gain are transients who engage in a process to sell plots to developers, who maximise construction space in the modern idiom and both parties make money and move on. The council can add another to their quota, but residents are left with the residue. Fragmented agendas for different parties producing fragmented results. This is not an isolated incident. It is time that people who feel responsible for their environment lodge concerns to the council and ensure they take these views into consideration for planning applications. Nigel HollingworthVia e-mail