Time was wasted

Yes, the Gleeson development would undoubtedly transform Malvern, but the question is surely do the residents and their councillor representatives actually want Malvern to be “transformed”? It should be for the town, not the developers and the planners, to decide.

The Gleeson plan for Malvern to which the developers and the planners have committed themselves so unwaveringly for the best part of four years would effectively turn an unusually attractive and distinctive town into Anytown, Anywhere, with a huge satellite estate at Newland.

From the beginning, the district council planners, with the too-evident encouragement of some but by no means all councillors, chose the easy option of effectively selling out to a big developer, albeit one whose variation on the familiar theme of “these are the extra amenities, the ‘sweeteners’, we promise you” have a fashionable “green” appeal.

It is utterly inexcusable that a great deal of time was wasted, particularly between the two crucial July public meetings, of 2011 and 2012, when, instead of devoting the time to producing a more imaginative, small-scale dispersal of proposed development, the planners stayed wedded to their socalled “preferred option”, remaining largely deaf to criticism of it and resorting again and again to the highly questionable, if not offensive tactic of “accept our SWDP or else...”

Given the political will, it is not too late to adopt a more careful, considered AND democratic approach to the SWDP.

ERIC H JONES Guarlford, Malvern