I REFER to your ‘Tempers were close to boiling point’ article (September 21) concerning the gas pipe laying tailbacks between Malvern and Junction 7 of the M5.

Are your readers fully aware of the effects that the proposed 1,000 more houses and the greatly increased commercial (and retail) capacity of Malvern and the 2,500 additional houses at Kempsey will have on the already severely overloaded A449 and A4440?

Both (threatened) huge developments would depend heavily on the two motorway and link roads.

No doubt local councillors – who voted to get us this far – will explain to you just what the developers and planners have in mind.

Meanwhile I suggest all good Malvernians and Kempseyans brush up on their first aid and CPR because ambulances from Worcester will have to fight their way through a gridlocked road.

Yes, Harriett Baldwin MP, we – that is Guarlford, Madresfield, Newland, Powick and Kempsey parish councils – agree with you that more dispersed development across the whole of the Malvern Hills District is a large part of the answer.

Your suggestion that more time is needed for identifying sites for smallscale development is surely right.

If we could all be involved in such a way at local level – surely what ‘localism’ means – even able to say what kind of house design and building materials and features would be harmonious with the existing development, then there could be real enthusiasm to see dispersed, small-scale, harmonious developments go ahead.

CHARLES EDEN, Madresfield.