DAVID Cameron said he wanted local councils to have more control of local matters.

So what did he do? He rode roughshod over the existing planning regulations and made it all but impossible for councils to have any control over housing development.

Week in and week out in this newspaper we read of housing developments being proposed, opposed, rejected and then permitted on appeal.

When democratically elected councillors unanimously reject a development proposal on a greenfield site, how can it be right that one non-elected government official can overturn that decision?

I can understand the Government having a say if it is a power station or motorway, but why are they involved in saying where or when houses should be built in the district?

If the councillors have no say then what is the point of having a local council?

Maybe they should make a point by resigning en bloc.

Maybe, in the forthcoming European elections, we can make a point by voting for anyone other than the main parties who have actually got us in this mess.

Rex Hall

Pershore