Sir, – I live in the village of Great Ayton where there is a planning application pending for the construction of 113 houses on productive farm land. There is overwhelming opposition to this development within the village and both the parish and district councils have unanimously rejected the proposals.

Despite this, the property developers employed by the land owners have appealed against these decisions and it is going to a public inquiry.

In this situation there appears to be a great deal of animosity directed towards land owners, which in my opinion is unfair, but more importantly pointless. Such land owners are using recent changes in planning legislation to maximise an asset.

If we live in a law-abiding capitalist society, and you accept that, then this approach should also be accepted, and I suspect that many of the objectors would do the same if they were in the position of the many landowners in this situation.

What we should be looking for in these circumstances, surely, is sound legislation preventing such opportunist developments like this from seeing the light of day, and that is where this Government is failing badly, and letting down both those in rural and urban communities.

I believe that most young, first-time buyers (presumably the intended occupants for the supposed house shortage) tend to want to stay in, or close to, the environment they were brought up in, yet rural green fields are being built on and urban brown field sites left.

Builders also build more profitably on green field sites, so they have a vested interest in this type of development.

The result of this is that villages and market towns are losing their character and town centres and the suburbs are de-populating and degenerating. There are no winners.

DAVID GREER Great Ayton.