Recent inquiries show that agricultural land sells for around £6,000 per acre, while the same land with planning permission for houses sells for around £500,000 per acre.

So for each of the suggested developments to the east of Devizes, those at Coate Bridge and north east of Roundway Park, the landowners and the developers with whom they are in cahoots would share a windfall profit of a tidy £20 million or so. No wonder the developers are able to buy the services of award-winning PR people and lawyers to win such a prize.

Before the ink is dry on the planning permission the developers will take their profit by selling the land to the highest bidding builder who will then use his lawyers to increase the number of houses and negotiate away any contributions to infrastructure improvements made conditional on planning permission.

Mactaggart and Mickel now openly state on its website that it proposes to dispose of some of its English land as soon a planning permission is obtained. So any promises made at this stage by developers about the quality of their homes can safely be ignored because these will not be the people building them.

But is a $20 million windfall profit from the granting of planning permission on 50 acres of land not rather excessive?

Question: Who would have generated this money? Answer: We, the people of Devizes as represented by our elected representatives Wiltshire Council if, in their wisdom, they were to grant planning permission.

And what would we the people get out of the deal? Unwanted houses for unwanted commuters to clog our inadequate roads, especially London Road. Read for yourself on savingdevizes.wordpress.com and on Facebook.

Jerry Pilgrim, Kingsmanor Wharf, Devizes.