I HAVE received an invitation from Linden Homes to support their forthcoming planning application to build up to 125 more homes at Post Farm, Thornbury.

Let’s examine the housing situation as it is at present. We have 500 homes being built adjacent to the Park Farm estate and Bloor Homes proposing to build 300 homes at Thornbury Fields which means the all important boundary, having no homes to the east of Thornbury, has now been breached.

Linden Homes would like you to believe these extra houses will benefit our economy. However, the reality is more strain on vital services and increased traffic on already choked road systems.

Developers are interested in making profits. They will promise you a playground for the children, an allotment and a green space because that is a cheaper option than a new doctor surgery or an extension to the Thornbury Hospital.

Why aren’t they providing a care home for the local council to manage after the demise of the much-needed Alexandra Way care home?

Their buildings will take away much more land than they will condescendingly hand back to the people of Thornbury as though they were doing us a favour.

We see a regular turnover of new shops opening in Thornbury. However, due to high rents and the ever present threat of internet shopping they often go bust within a year.

The biggest winners to benefit from having 3000 extra people swamping the area will be the major shopping players i.e. Tesco, Boots, Aldi, Lloyds, WH Smith and Coop. Small shops are soon elbowed out of the lucrative shopping bonanza.

Who would have guessed twenty years ago that our high streets would be swamped with corporate shopping empires?

Having more potential shoppers will not mean more small individual shops. It is not a level playing field for those willing to risk everything to open a new shop on the High Street.

As our planet heats up and the extreme weather systems bring increased rainfall the water run-off from housing estates has to cope with ever increasing volumes of water. It remains to be seen whether all the extra building around Butt Lane will have sufficient storm water drains and ponds to take away the threat of flooding for the Olveston village area.

Don’t sit back and allow the developers to change our green and pleasant surroundings. Thornbury needs our help.

Chris Tippetts

Thornbury