It is heartening to read in last week’s front page story that Chippenham residents and some of their representatives can see that the town is in a bad place with the failure of Wiltshire Council’s plans in the so-called Core Strategy.

Now that the Government inspector has rejected those plans, the town is open to unplanned development in all the green open space around the town which we know are highly valued by local people.

The council is rushing to put something else in place but it seems likely only to make matters worse. Not only is it proposing to allocate a further 500 houses on top of the 4,000 already imposed but it intends to make the numbers for Chippenham a minimum, rather than the target numbers that are being proposed for every other part of Wiltshire. This obviously opens up the town to unlimited concreting over of the open spaces around it. It surely cannot be a sound planning policy.

Even though the Prime Minister, on his recent photo-opportunity visit to the town, told us we have to take our medicine and accept what his political colleagues in Trowbridge tell us, there is a chance for people to object if they want to. The deadline for this is Tuesday, May 27. The consultation process is cumbersome, as usual, but there are some relatively easy ways through. You can access the consultation web pages via the link which has already been helpfully publicised in this newspaper http://tinyurl.com/o6ac545.

Or you can go via the ‘Focus On’ link on the council’s home page. If this looks too daunting, I believe it will be enough to send an email tospatialplanningpolicy@wiltshire.gov.uk with your name and address, saying that you think the idea of a minimum number of 500 extra houses for Chippenham is unsound planning and objectionable.

Chris Caswill, Wiltshire councillor, Chippenham Monkton.