I write to support the Queen's Park and Craven Vale Action group on the question of the Pankhurst Avenue Reservoir site.

While I accept that members of the planning committee, as a semi-judicial body, are free to make their own decisions, who would have thought they would not only go against the recommendation of the development control officer but also against the spirit of the local plan, which has been widely consulted on?

I cannot say whether or not an application for a community centre would have been acceptable in planning terms but for them to have gone against the officer's advice and our own local plan in favour of 18 residencies on the only remaining open land in the area with apparently little thought for the implications for the local community saddens me enormously.

Some five years ago, the Hanover Forum, under the chairmanship of the Reverend David Wostelholme, identified facilities for the age group 10-16 as a priority in the area. Since then, as pointed out by Ann Goatcher, the situation has got worse.

I can't believe the planning committee has thrown away the chance of helping the many young people in the area and thereby improving everyone's lives.

-Joyce Edmond-Smith, Councillor, Hanover & Elm Grove