YOU may be aware that Marlborough College is in the advanced stages of discussing a deal with Wiltshire Council that will involve the development of 100 houses and a new Preshute School on land designated as an AONB. The land borders on two adjourning and existing housing developments at Barton Park and College Fields on the western outskirts of Marlborough.

The development has been badly publicised, some would say deliberately, but those residents in the know are vehemently opposed to the plans. Adding 100 houses and a school to the area will blight people's lives for years to come, will badly affect traffic flows in the area, will challenge already struggling power and water/sewerage networks and will destroy greenbelt land on the edge of a town whose infrastructure is already creaking badly.

I write to you in the hope that the residents of the area can be given a voice. So far the news has had limited column inches; a couple of well concealed announcements, a mention in the town council planning minutes and a letter from the head of Preshute School to parents. Suppressed would be a good description of what news there has been.

Marlborough College is the driving force behind the development with the clear support of Wiltshire Council which has a vested interest in allowing the development to proceed – they get a new and much-needed school for free as a result. The residents get the school and 100 houses in their back gardens and all the associated traffic running past their doors. The college, in an unusually altruistic move, claims the development will help the community (how?), will benefit Preshute School pupils and, had we forgotten, will add millions to the college's bank balance and allow investment in new facilities for college fields – the real motivation perhaps? What the college wants, the college inevitably gets.

The residents of Barton Park and College Fields seem to have been overlooked in what has been done and said so far. It is time for our voices to be heard.

I have sent a letter to the chairman of the Marlborough Town Council planning committee asking for clarification of the council's position. The council's own minutes show that the chairman, the town mayor, appears to be in favour of the development. I have asked her to clarify her position. For now, the residents look like they are on their own.

If you need any more information, please let me know. There are many people around this area that feel we have been forgotten and will be ignored. Hopefully your interest would prove them wrong.

PETER MAY Benson Close Marlborough