I WAS pleased to attend a consultation at St Leonard’s Chapel organised by the developers proposing to build 800 houses at Newland.

While there are several key planning issues to be considered, such as the mix of affordable and family housing and the practicality of a single access road off the Worcester Road/Townsend Way roundabout, questions about public and community facilities are in danger of being neglected.

For example, there appears to have been no consideration of local health services, and when I asked one of the exhibition staff where the nearest GP surgery was, he did not know.

Similarly, the plan includes a site for a primary school, but has there been any discussion with the county council about whether there are funds to build and staff this?

How do the proposed industrial units fit with the district douncil’s economic development strategy, linking with local colleges in providing training and apprenticeships for young people?

Who will maintain and manage the use of the sports fields so that they can be a valuable resource for all the community?

Here is a real opportunity for our district council to make a fresh start by demonstrating a joined up concern for the quality of life of Malvern communities rather than focusing on the much narrower interests of planners and landowners which have bedevilled local politics in recent years.

Martin Willis

Malvern Link