LETTER: No wonder people are so cynical

Cllr Philip Circus, smiling out of your page 12 (15.01.15), says ‘None of us want this development north of Horsham. People think we want it (but we are being forced into the housing allocations in the District Plan)’.

He was not forced of course. As chairman at the time of the preparation of the housing plan he had every opportunity to get his council to come up with a different plan.

But he didn’t. One might be forgiven for thinking he simply rolled over because he knew his southern electorate would be grateful to him.

And, of course, it was Cllr Circus who called the police on a member of the public who dared to ask for an answer posed to cabinet planning supremo Cllr Vickers on her plan.

And then there is Cllr Brian Donnelly. Interesting that he too comes from the south – Pulborough and Coldwaltham. He was the councillor who in the council meeting on 30 April 2014 tried to cut short the debate on the alternative plan put forward by town councillors by tabling a guillotine motion.

He now wants to cut short the time taken over a planning decision by half. Cllr Donnelly didn’t sign your Free Speech Charter either – so why is he given space in your columns?

Finally we have Cllr Vickers. She says ‘I think the Inspector has made it very clear he supports where we are going’.

Now where does it say that in Mr Salter’s report? Did Cllr Vickers have privileged conversations with Mr Salter when we all thought he was only allowed to say anything in the public area?

She proudly proclaims her planning committee will meet in private. She made a statement last week in your columns that the extra houses would not mean extending the 800 acres north of the A264 –but she did not say that the extra houses would not be contained within the same space. These were weasel words from a self-interested politician.

Reading your big piece last week (pp12-13) and the comments of these three councilors – key figures in the way this terrible lame council of ours has been driven by a small cabal – I kept saying to myself ‘no wonder the British public is so cynical about politics and lacking in trust of politicians’.

JAMES P. HOUGHTON

Owlscastle Close, Horsham