Triple treat

SIR – Congratulations, and thank you for your most perceptive editorial in the Herts Advertiser of September 17. You stand alone in having very properly identified the triple whammy facing the Verulam estate . First, proposals to build up to one thousan

SIR - Congratulations, and thank you for your most perceptive editorial in the Herts Advertiser of September 17. You stand alone in having very properly identified the "triple whammy facing the Verulam estate".

First, proposals to build up to one thousand two hundred homes sprawling along two sides of the Verulam estate (across Windridge Farm, a beautiful expanse of farmland which is precious Green Belt. Second, the proposed - if questionably effective - Western Orbital Route, planned to follow the route of Bedmond Lane.

And third, agreement for nearly three hundred new homes on the former playing field off King Harry Lane, which forms the third side of the estate.

And, as you rightly point out, once the Green Belt is breeched, these housing numbers are only likely to increase.

Set against the context of the existing Verulam estate - which has less than 400 homes - the magnitude of this triple whammy becomes all to clear.

Perhaps it is as well that Verulamium Park forms the fourth boundary of the Verulam estate!

The Green Belt has a clearly defined purpose and should not be decimated in this way.

Thank you again for so consistently drawing people's attention to the importance of the consultation exercise. Because, in consultation, silence means consent!

DR ROBERT WAREING

Claudian Place

St Albans