THANK you for the article and editorial on the Hilperton Gap housing issue.

I would urge everyone with an interest in the topic to attend the exhibition at Fieldways Hotel on Tuesday between 3pm and 8pm and register their opinion. However, be under no illusion that the so-called consultation is a “phoney war”; a mere box ticking exercise which the applicant is expected to undertake as part of the planning process. Indeed, your article states that ‘Framptons .... said an outline application would soon be submitted’.

So it would seem that, whatever the outcome of the consultation, this pernicious and insidious planning application will be made. That is then the time to bombard the planning department at County Hall with salient reasons why it should be refused.

In order that no permission can be granted by a planning officer, I will be “calling in” any application so that the matter has to be heard by a WC planning committee if the officer is minded to give it the green light.

More info will be on my web site www.ernieclark.org.uk as it becomes available.

Oh, and if this application is permitted, will Wiltshire Council climb on its back and offer the land it owns in the area too? Murky waters could be ahead...

Ernie Clark, Wiltshire Councillor for Hilperton Division, Independent Group leader, Wiltshire Council