Mute response

SIR, — In your article on the shortage of St Albans District Council planning officers (Herts Advertiser, February 19), the local representatives of all three political parties accept that such a shortage exists. I have been trying throughout this year to

SIR, - In your article on the shortage of St Albans District Council planning officers (Herts Advertiser, February 19), the local representatives of all three political parties accept that such a shortage exists. I have been trying throughout this year to talk on the telephone to a planning officer at the council offices, but without success after numerous calls.

A polite young lady says that they are all at a meeting and she will leave a message marked "urgent"....... but the rest is silence. On the last occasion even the receptionist at the desk who initially took the call warned me politely that I was very unlikely to get a response.

Frankly I accept this in view of the tremendous pressure under which these officers are obviously working.

However if, as Cllr Chris Brazier confirms, the council have already built or achieved planning permission for one-third of the dwellings which they are required to build by 2021 in 11 years time, then I submit that in these circumstances it is sensible now to call a moratorium on development on sites where clearly the traffic infrastructure etc is totally inadequate - such as King Harry Lane playing fields.

BARRIE MORT,

Westfields, St Albans.