ED MILIBAND spoke out against excessive planning consent and the creation of land banks. He said under Labour it would be “use it or lose it”.

In the past year a land bank of 140 hectares has been created between Peterlee and Easington and not one Labour councillor spoke out against it.

Mr Miliband was reported in the press as saying we should follow the French way of self-builds.

In the past seven years permission has been given for 33 houses in Littlethorpe but only five have been built, all of them were self-builds.

Recently, speaking on BBC Question Time Chris Grayling, the Secretary of State for Justice, said it would be madness to build on a greenfield site when a brownfield site was nearby.

There are a number of brownfield sites in Easington.

Perhaps councillors could take a look at these sites and listen to what the locals have to say.

If they can’t then perhaps we need a different voice.

Norbert Frain, Littlethorpe, Easington.