IN the Wiltshire Times Mr Baldy from Broughton Gifford is quoted: "People who live in villages where they have paid for the privilege deserve to live somewhere safe and secure."

This privilege has led to the very decline in village life Mr Baldy claims that he is trying to protect. Affordable housing is a housing choice for people who cannot afford to buy into the housing market, not a judgement on their lives. Everybody deserves to live somewhere safe and secure and to suggest otherwise is offensive to the many people who do live in affordable housing.

What about the children of the village, what hope have they of living in the village if they cannot afford to buy? I do not profess to understand planning regulations but surely out of the proposed 14 houses the actual numbers of affordable housing would be very few and only of interest to village people.

Far from village decline, affordable housing is integral to the idea of sustainable communities. Developers are usually led by one aim, and that is profit.

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