IN Ms (Rebecca) Pow's complacent response to Gideon Amos' warning about Government plans to double housing numbers for the Taunton Deane area, she made the astonishing assertion that “this system puts councillors at the forefront of decision making”.

This is simply untrue.

Don't take my word for it. Scores of Conservative MPs have stood up for their constituents in Parliament by saying the exact opposite of Ms Pow!

Theresa May: “We need to reform the planning system ... But we will not do that by removing local democracy, cutting the number of affordable homes that are built and building over rural areas. Yet that is exactly what these reforms will lead to.”

Caroline Noakes: “The Housing Minister and I were first elected in 2010 on a manifesto that committed to no more top-down housing targets, and this algorithm looks like a top-down target.”

Many more agreed.

READ MORE: 'Equivalent of a town as big as Wellington could be built every five years'

I can understand if Ms Pow were to defend Government policy. But she doesn't. She just pretends this policy doesn't exist.

The algorithm which doubles the housing projection for Taunton Deane is real. Central Government dictating numbers while taking power from elected councillors to give to Developers is real.

Theresa May and her Conservative colleagues know all this is real and are trying to change it.

Just as Donald Trump refuses to admit that he lost the election, I suspect that Rebecca Pow knows all this is real too.

She just won't admit it.

ALAN PAUL
Taunton