I thought with a new Isle of Wight Council in place that they would be more representative to the community views but the result of the planning committee's approval of housing on the working Westridge Farm disgusts all of us.

The first phase of this project should never have been approved, let alone taking a complete area of green land for more housing and the livelihood of the tenants of the last working farm in Ryde.

Ryde Town Council is opposed to this project and a majority of residents agree but county councillors don’t seem to have the bottle for refusal!

Along with planning for Pennyfeathers and Harcourt Sands, there are proposals for around 2,000 houses in Ryde.

READ MORE: Controversial Westridge Farm housing plan is approved

READ MORE: Pennyfeathers: Detail added to plan for 900 homes in Ryde

Even now it can take anything up to half-an-hour to drive through the town to get to the open road and, after the recent rainfall and the flooding associated with it, more housing and a lack of natural drainage can only exacerbate this problem.

It’s time these so-called experts listened to the residents of the town and agree to no new builds of this scale but concentrate on the filling in of brownfield sites.

Regrettably this is an Island-wide problem that the council need to address.

Our beautiful Island is being decimated by these proposals and it's time the whole concept of housing growth was thought about properly. Less people and fewer second homes maybe!

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