THE Coalition government has made something of a virtue of the U-turn since May 2010, on the basis that changing policy as a result of public pressure shows that you are listening.

This was amply demonstrated on with the forestry sell-off.

Personally, I have no problem with that kind of pragmatic approach, though clearly you can only do that so many times before electors begin to work out that either you don’t know what you are doing or that sticking to your principles isn’t a big deal. Or both.

The issue currently exercising public opinion is the rather dry subject of planning regulations. More than 100,000 people have signed a National Trust petition calling for a rethink of controversial reforms which some think will be a developers’ charter to concrete over the countryside.

Locally, another related issue is in the process of raising its head as a result of the list of possible gypsy and traveller sites revealed today.

Three of the four pieces of land identified in Bournemouth are in the green belt in the north of the borough and the alarm bells have already started ringing. Some observers are worried about any potential breach of the green belt.

And so they should be. If any of these three sites are deemed to be suitable or acceptable at the end of the process, I will be, as they say these days, gobsmacked.