REGARDING last week’s front page article: We should all hope that our district councillors will follow Councillor Hughes’ advice, and think again about their U-turn on the South Worcestershire Development Plan proposals.

Rejecting a plan which their officers have been working on for the last five years, at this late stage, is total folly.

The residents of Newland may think they have won a victory, but they have not, and neither have the majority of the people of Malvern Hills.

If the SWDP proposals are rejected again, when our council makes its final decision on December 10, then Wychavon and Worcester will draw up their own development plans.

This means the total housing allocation numbers will be redistributed between the three councils; and Malvern Hills will almost certainly end up with a revised figure of between 1,000 and 1,500 extra houses.

In other words, not only will Newland get all 700 houses proposed in the SWDP anyway, but we will also have to have all the council policy group’s proposed sites as well, and probably several more.

MR RICHARD SPENCER Malvern