IN response to ‘name and address supplied’ regarding the proposed development recently refused planning permission at Bear Wood (Letters, July 16), the desire for any council to maximise employment opportunities does not mean overriding their planning policies.

The land in question was never considered suitable for future employment use by the Borough of Poole, only by an outside planning inspector who was persuaded of this point by the landowners Just because ‘name and address supplied’ doubts there are suitable alternative sites available does not make it so.

I would refer him or her to Fleetsbridge and the regeneration area within Poole and the airport outside Poole Finally, a previous planning committee did indeed grant planning permission for the housing extension at Talbot Village – I fail to see the relevance of this to the decision taken at Bear Wood given that this land was allocated in Poole’s local plan for housing years ago.

I stand by my quote in the Daily Echo that, in my view, the best future for this land is a return to green belt – there is no reason to tarmac over green fields, whether green belt or not, while there remains much previously used land available for re-development in Poole.

CLLR PHILIP EADES, Chairman of planning committee, Borough of Poole