No objections

SIR, - I have had a previous letter regarding my issues with St Albans District Council's planning department printed in your pages and as a result spoke to many readers who felt that they could not understand the number of objections to the development on the corner of Stanhope Road and Camp Road, St Albans, opposite the Crown Pub.

It has now been a building site since 2003 and will remain so for the foreseeable future with the real possibility that it may even have to be demolished and returned to what was originally there.

My understanding is that the stumbling block is the opinion of the conservation team, unchanged throughout all the 16 applications submitted so far.

Yet there has been a complete lack of objections from the public or residents in the area to any of the 16 different proposals submitted so far.

I am at a loss to understand why someone who does not work, live, shop, socialise or even drive by and see what goes on in the area has so much power to dictate what happens there without at least taking into consideration what the local residents think.

Maybe it's the fact that "no objections" translates into "no opinion". This is certainly not the impression I get from the many people who when walking by stop to ask me or anybody working on the site what is going on. I have yet to hear any negative comments among all those who take the time to ask.

So can I please ask your readers to take the little time that it would take to express their views on the development - or lack of it - so far at the corner of Stanhope Road and Camp Road, in the hope that a greater picture of what is actually the true sentiment regarding this site can be formulated. And if my positive sentiment is mistaken then like all well-meaning entrepreneurs I will go back to the drawing board,

TERENZIO DI FRANCESCO,

Stanhope Road, St Albans.