PLANNING chairman Councillor Clive Cheetham is to be congratulated for his stand on the development of the Abbey Stadium.

The issue is not whether Redditch should have a leisure complex but whether the officers and councillors should be able to ignore planning rules when it suits them.

We had the issue of the Local Plan constantly raised when we were fighting to retain Headless Cross green as open space.

According to councillors and officers then, the Local Plan was written on tablets of stone.

It would seem now that when it suits them, the Local Plan can be ignored, even when discussing a huge project like this which, I would imagine, will affect the lives of many people living in the area.

Mr Cheetham was one of the few councillors who supported us in our fight for the green.

I hope he will be able to get support, not to prevent the leisure complex being built, which is not what he wants, but to see that proper public consultation is allowed.

Mrs M Morley

Tennyson Road

Headless Cross