Sir,

I think Peter Morris has every right to be outraged at the granting of planning permission to the husband of the chair of the planning committee.

He is quite right in asserting that permission is normally only given for a property adjacent to the present farmhouse.

Permission has been granted despite the objections of the community council and neighbours.

While the planning committee is supposed to be free of political interference, more than half of the members are Conservative.

Kirstie Buckland has frequently said in these pages that all councillors should be independent to avoid decisions being taken for political reasons.

It is behaviour like this which adds support to that view.

Alan Pain

(Monmouth)