It was with sadness that I returned from a business trip to find that Warminster Town Council had passed a very divisive policy on the settlement boundaries that will have ramifications to the relationships between the populations of the east and west of the town for a long time.

It is surprising that the west, which has the majority of the population and slightly more councillors than the east, continually fails to get a sensible change to the boundaries that at present limit the expansion of the town almost exclusively towards the west.

Somehow our councillors manage to vote in a way that they later say they did not intend or are cleverly hoodwinked by the other councillors from the east of the town.

There is a likelihood that there will be in excess of 1,200 houses built in the west of town, where the access to the centre is down a very narrow road that is regularly single lane due to parking, rather than to the east where the roads resemble Paris boulevards in all except a 100m stretch.

This imbalance has been contrived by a group of councillors representing the wealthy inhabitants of the east of town, who are being assisted by the well-heeled folk from Bishopstrow, who object to their peace and quiet being disturbed. Some of the councillors actually stood on the ‘No building in the east’ ticket but now have the brass neck to suggest that anyone calling for any readjustment of the boundary will open the flood gates to developers and that the town should unite against any changes.

I would ask people to think carefully about what they are doing and support recommendations that the areas of St Andrews and Bugley Barton Farm are taken out of the settlement boundary and St Andrews used for allotments, and the settlement boundary is extended to Home Farm and Boreham Mead (which has already been granted planning permission).

It is a real issue with one side of the town being dumped on with somewhere in the region of 1,200-1,500 houses and the other side suffering the real stress of 34 houses.

I only ask for a fair distribution of misery. Warminster’s draft Core Strategy is not set in concrete. It is a draft and we can redraft it. Look out for the consultation in January.

Jeremy Stadward, Haygrove Close, Warminster.