IN RECENT weeks I have read numerous articles and letters concerning the constant threat of major housing developments in local villages.

At Overton, that lovely village of such character, they apparently intend to build to make it a third bigger – a quite horrendous prospect.

At Goodworth Clatford, a village I do not know so well but with genuine thatch and a proper balance, I am told that they want to build a huge new estate with a new school.

At Stockbridge, that fine gemof a town beside the Test, they want to build a massive new estate that would simply destroy the area, judging by the protest posters in many windows.

In each of these cases – and many more could be listed – landowners and their developer partners are simply seeking to take advantage of the new lax planning laws fostered by this government.

Who can blame them in a sense for wanting to cash in their land for a few million?

Conservative at one time defined the word in conservation of the green belt and countryside, but certainly not any more.

However, there has to be a price to pay for this foolishness in political terms for kicking their own natural supporters in the teeth with all this development – anxiety they are allowing to carry forward throughout Hampshire.

I very much fear, if returned, they will relax the planning regime even further and that will be a disaster for so, so many Hampshire villages.

David Hosier, Gatehouse Row, Sherfield English