After the recent catastrophic damage caused by flooding a lot of questions are being asked. A university lecturer, apparently an expert on hydrology, spoke on the radio about more underground culverts being built to harness excessive rainfall.

I guess that it's common sense if it manages to keep the landscapes dry and helps to keep us all hydrated in the event of a drought.

Good idea, but all open space today seems to have been set aside for housing development.

The Conservatives at their party conference vowed to build hundreds of thousands more houses if re-elected. No doubt the Labour party and Lib Dems would do the same. Every other page of your newspaper refers to applications on wanting to build. And very few it seems are refused. Our countryside is being commandeered at an alarming rate, and the water meadows and hedgerows which acted as nature's defences are being lost. This relentless desire to build, build, build is detrimental not only to man, but the animal world itself.

We are repeatedly being told that this country has a housing crisis. We haven't. We have a population.

Bob Woodland,

Poole