We must find solutions

LIKE it or not, Yvonne Morton (Postbag 'Stansted' August 21), made some valid points.

I am concerned at the way this whole debate is being conducted; vitriolic personal attacks and trying to discredit the responsible Government ministers at every turn will not win arguments.

Faced with the massive problems of global warming and pressures of population we must find solutions. It is vital for all new buildings to be eco-based. We should concentrate on where to place development with reason instead of abuse and misrepresentation.

I fully endorse the concept of eco towns and greener living, and accept the infrastructural advantages of placing major new housing in large groups. Should development proceed I would expect top priority be given to the needs of people already on our local housing lists and not to the labour I understand is being actively recruited by BAA and others abroad. This casts grave doubt on the need to create so many new jobs and attract so many new households from overseas; perhaps the recently leaked Conservative plan to halt regeneration in the north whilst "encouraging" the population there to move south will become justification!

Essex and Cambridgeshire are already under extreme pressure. I am amazed that this devastation of productive land, the associated extraction of water and localised natural population growth it will generate could be considered environmentally sustainable.

It is obvious that further extraction of ground water and lowering of the water table will severely impact on farm and woodland alike.

Crops will become more susceptible to drought and trees will die. This gargantuan appetite for countryside is a recipe for environmental and humanitarian disaster.

C Gilbey, Saffron Walden