Residents of Bude, I am writing to allay your fears over the Binhamy Farm development. You were all, no doubt, worried that the building of over four hundred new homes on the largest area of open fields left in Bude, would result in extra traffic regularly heading up and down Stratton Road, which you probably believe to be frequently nose to tail at certain times of day already.

You were, I'm sure, concerned that the difficulty of finding a parking space in town would soon become an impossibility. And many of you may have been worrying about the prospect of a vastly increased number of children being driven through town, on 'the school run', to and from Bude Infant and Junior Schools every morning and afternoon, with the resultant disruption and hold-ups that would be experienced.

Traders and shop owners, I bet you were fearful of all those extra customers clogging up your shops, emptying your shelves prematurely, and impatiently waiting around to spend their wages earned at one of the five hundred new jobs that we have been promised.

But, after attending the site meeting at Binhamy today, (Thursday, February 12) I feel reassured, and I know we can all sleep soundly in our beds. You see, we were assured by a representative of the developers, the Catesby Group, that "the people who will live on the new development won't go into Bude!"

Yes, this was the view of the Director of Planning himself, John Acres, and I think it gives us some insight into the approach of such developers who come along from who knows where, intent on disrupting and destroying Bude as we know it, when they themselves have so little understanding or awareness of what will actually happen. Either that, or they are prepared to say just about anything to convince us that everything is going to be wonderful.

And yet, does this view, which was received with incredulity, and not a little hilarity, by the many concerned residents gathered at the site meeting, does it not contradict, somewhat, the very positive slant evident in his letter to the 'Post' last week, when he extolled the virtues of having a huge number of people moving into our town, and the beneficial effect it would have, of "bringing new business to the town centre."

So which is the real view of the developers? That Binhamy will be of great benefit to us all? Or that we won't even notice it?

I think it is indicative of the attitude of Catesby that they fail to grasp the value to Bude and Stratton residents, of the wonderful, huge — and it is huge — green field site that we would be losing, with its rich habitat, home to many woodland birds, dormice and other wildlife, and that the open space that currently greets both locals and visitors as they arrive, would be gone forever, to be replaced by a soulless conglomeration of 'non-food outlets' (what a wonderfully vague term).

In fact, if you look at their website, you will find that it simply dismisses the worth of such environmental riches, when, in summing up the site, it states that "views are restricted by hedgerows and trees." Well, Mr Acres, for many, many people, when they look at those fields, it is views of trees, and hedges, and greenery, that what they want to see. When developers look, all they see is a great big £ sign.

Yes, we want affordable homes built in Bude and Stratton, for local people, but unfortunately, there is no agreement as to how many there will actually be at Binhamy, nor who will be eligible for them, nor any guarantee of how 'affordable' they will really be.

Bude.