Sir, – I note that a further Richmondshire District Council meeting to discuss the planning application for the housing development in Richmond on the site of the old workhouse at the corner of Cravengate and Victoria Road is to be held on July 29.

That the site should be developed is not in question, but I feel that three factors need to be given serious consideration.

1) The number of properties envisioned, 20 I believe, will result in an enormous increase in traffic trying to access the main road at an already tricky junction. A roundabout has been put forward as a possible solution but the prospect of buses, wagons with trailers, farm machinery, to say nothing of the phalanxes of motor cycles trying to negotiate a mini-roundabout at that point just doesn’t seem practical.

2) When my daughter moved house a couple of years ago, she sought permission to have a large sycamore, a weed by anyone’s reckoning, removed from within 15 feet of her back door. She was refused.

Yet I understand that the very rare copper acer on the front of the site is to be unceremoniously chopped down. One law for...?

3) There are, I believe, currently, around 740 properties for sale in the Richmond area. Do we really need so many more? Where will the buyers come from?

DAPHNE CLARKE Reeth Road, Richmond.