The new houses being built between London Road and Quaker’s Walk in Devizes are coming along at a fair lick. While the site continues to take shape, the marketing suite’s ploy to attract new buyers has been to adorn the developers’ security fencing with adverts extolling the virtues of buying a home on the estate.

On a recent stroll along Quaker’s Walk, one caught my eye.

It dreamily asks: “Want a real room with a view?” while depicting Mr and Mrs Ideal Family walking off through trees and fields on a summer’s day...

As I wandered along, I pondered on the hoarding’s question: yes, those houses on the estate’s westerly edge will be blessed with wonderful views overlooking parkland and open fields.

But the irony of the question caught up with me as I reached the row of south-facing bungalows in Roundway Park. Up until last year, residents here enjoyed some fabulous views across those same open fields. Today they look out on a miserable mound of earth that’s almost level with their rooftops.

How can the developers be so insensitive? In effect, they have stolen one view to simply sell another. I am told, rightly or wrongly, that the views enjoyed by existing properties cannot be protected; so why then is it all right to use the notion of ‘the view’ to help sell new homes? A case of robbing Peter to pay Paul, it would seem.

James Harrison, Morris Lane, Devizes.