DAVID Cameron stated: “I care deeply about our countryside and environment. I would no more put that at risk than I would put at risk my own family.

“It is a presumption of sustainable development and all those words are equally important.

“Let me be clear; at the heart of it is more local control, the neighbourhood plan, you decide rather than ‘the man in Whitehall knows best’.

“Villages will be able to designate new green spaces in their local plans that they want to keep, that is a protection that they don’t necessarily have now.”

So our diligent Hartford Action Group worked exhaustively to produce a Neighbourhood Plan, which ‘the man in Whitehall’ and our local GP pronounced first-class and an example to others a short time ago.

Everyone who attended the exhibition of this in Hartford Village Hall was hugely impressed.

Now we are informed that the developers have the green light to build 650 houses, to put further strain on our schools, roads and infrastructure that is already struggling to cope.

Are we really supposed to trust anything that politicians say? I am utterly disgusted and forlorn for our village future.

Tricia Parker Hartford