THE much-missed Cllr Ron Whittaker once told me only one person wrote in to object to the planning application for (Britain’s Most Hated Building 2005) the Imax and there was no mandate to reject it.

When 500 people took the time to write letters/emails and over 2,000 signed hand delivered petitions against the A338/Wessex Fields road scheme, the last administration closed the application, made a minor change and re-opened it to invalidate all those signatures. 2,500 residents examined the scheme and objected to it for very valid reasons. Shamefully, hospital staff were used to support it, but they were not told that any initial gain from the road would quickly be lost when offices for 2,000 workers were built and in fact, the roads become exponentially worse than now.

When studying the RBH expansion plans, I was struck by the fact these wonderful new facilities are squashed on to a small site at the front and question the madness of sticking offices, that could go anywhere, on the vacant land behind. The hospital will always need to continue expanding in the future and should have its own access/egress, not shared with anyone else. Sadly, it has been forced to support this excessive road scheme which will not help it in the near future. How will they ever get out on to the roundabout with Chaseside vehicles rat-running through Deansleigh Road?

I hope this new coalition administration looks into the smart moves of the old and examines the true picture.

W SHARP, Elm Cottages, Holdenhurst Village