Having read Michael Wheller’s ludicrous claim (letters, 20 September) of a partisan political conspiracy to allow our local plan to lapse so that developers can benefit from a planning free-for-all, I am torn between echoing John McEnroe’s famous remark ‘you cannot be serious’ and suggesting that Mr Wheller listens to his wife.

She is a member of the borough’s management committee which, in a cross-party decision on June 5, unanimously agreed the timetable and process for getting our new draft local plan through all its stages. Key to that decision was confirmation there would not be any gap in planning protection of the sort claimed by Mr Wheller. I should also note that – by working together with our neighbours in West Dorset – we expect to save the taxpayers of the borough a six-figure sum in the process of having the local plan adopted, compared with going it alone as we have always done previously As for Mr Wheller’s wild allegations of the inevitability of development on every greenfield site, and unrestrained building on Markham and Little Francis, this new framework gives us much more chance to decide locally what we will and will not permit than did the centralised diktats of Labour’s previous planning regime. So if bad things are allowed to slip through much of the blame will lie with apathy here in Weymouth and Portland, not with some remote government department.

I do not believe there is such apathy – public consultation over the shape of our new plan kicks off with a major event at the Pavilion Ocean Room on September 30, at which we have already had confirmed acceptances from more than 70 local organisations.

It is for us, as a community, to decide the balance we want between preserving what we hold dear and making the changes necessary to remain a thriving town into the future. It will be a challenging compromise and not the acceptance of everyone’s wish list. I believe that the people of Weymouth and Portland have the heart, and the pride in our area, to rise to that challenge, and I urge them to get involved.

Dr Ian Roebuck Borough Councillor, Briefholder for the Environment, and Leader, Liberal Democrat Group.

Weymouth Bay Avenue Weymouth