In his diatribe, printed in part last week, Mr Rea gave me too much credit.

It is true that the Trust for Devizes led the opposition to the Coate Bridge greenfield site proposal while I was chairman, but it was the strength of local community opinion that mattered in the end.

Many local people turned out to a public meeting organised by the trust in December 2013 to launch the protest. The protest was also strongly supported by local bodies including the Devizes Community Area Partnership (DCAP), the Council for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE), local political parties and our MP.

Mr Rea stated that I had pushed for an old people’s care home development at Quakers Walk. In fact, the trust, DCAP and CPRE strongly opposed that proposal and submitted a substantial amount of written evidence. It was finally approved by a planning inspector sent in by Whitehall, who quoted selectively from the developer’s case to justify his decision – an example of the bias towards speculators built into the dysfunctional planning system.

Despite permission for a care home, the land owner cynically dropped that scheme and took a quick profit by selling the site with planning approval.

There is now a new proposal for yet another housing estate there, which would drive a coach and horses through the original arguments put forward for a care home.

Devizes has suffered from too many new greenfield housing estates on its outskirts. The planners have ignored the facts that we are remote from railways, hospitals and primary road routes; the town’s narrow centre is jammed by traffic from all directions and that the town lacks the infrastructure to cope with the big increase in population. The community has had enough, which is why we opposed Coate Bridge.

The new Neighbourhood Plan, developed by Devizes Town Council, Roundway Parish Council and Bishops Cannings Parish Council, has identified ample sites, including brownfield sites, for new housing within the existing built-up area.

That plan will be submitted to the local electorate in a referendum in a few weeks’ time and will then take precedence over speculators’ proposals for greenfield sites outside the town.

Even without Coate Bridge, there will be no shortage of housing for Mr Rea if he genuinely wants to come to Devizes.

Coun Ted East, Devizes Town Council.