ILMINSTER Town Council will send a letter to Prime Minister David Cameron about its concerns over ‘free for all’ developments in rural areas.

Huish Episcopi Parish Council asked the council to support its objections to Government guidelines, which it says are giving ‘carte blanche’ to developers to apply for ‘every bit of conceivable plot of land’.

The letter asked Ilminster town councillors to support it against the ‘senseless free for all planning experiment’ and instead concentrate on a realistic long-term housing strategy to build homes in the right places. Councillors agreed with Huish Episcopi Parish Council but decided to draft their own letter.

District councillor Carol Goodall and Cllr David Miller will draft a letter to be sent to the Prime Minister, MP Eric Pickles, MP David Laws and the leaders of Somerset County Council John Osman and South Somerset District Council Ric Pallister.

Cllr Goodall said: “If you look at the new guidelines, planning officers decided that they should err on the side of the developers.

“We have had enough problems with planning applications recently and this would make it ten times worse.

“If nobody challenges this plan, then it will go ahead – if we do not do something, affordable, quality homes will go down and that impacts on our community in the long run.”

Cllr David Miller felt a letter would do ‘precious little’ to have an impact and other councillors felt the letter was based on a political agenda rather than local issues.