HEREFORDSHIRE Council has surreptitiously made plans to change the number of homes to be built in many rural parishes after the elections.

The Core Strategy for the county was examined by a government inspector in February and she asked for clarification of some policies, now available for public comment on the Heref- ordshire Council website.

Although the council insists that the total ‘target’ of houses is unchanged, since the new rural housing calculation is based on the total number of dwellings in the parish, not the dwellings in the main settlement, some parishes will now receive unexpectedly higher allocations.

Unfortunately these random changes come ahead of assessment of the necessary infrastructure, transport, social facilities etc, and distribution of our unique landscapes and wildlife, or top-grade agricultural soils, might be an after-thought.

People need affordable housing, but probably not in an isolated, rural settlement with no facilities. How can these sudden policy changes be justified?

We read: “Emerging neighbourhood plans will only need ‘refinement’ rather than rewriting.” Many local steering groups have spent months working on plans to provide homes for local needs, only to find that the goalposts are suddenly shifting.

What’s going on? This is no way to plan.

NICKY GEESON Kings Acre Road, Hereford