MADAM - Neil Carmichael recently had the opportunity to ask a question in Parliament of Planning Minister Nick Boles.

Rather than use this prime spot to highlight the problems his constituents are facing in fighting inappropriate developments locally, he updated the minister on progress with the writing and adoption of Neighbourhood Plans in his constituency.

The information he gave, as reported in Hansard, was not even factually correct.

This does strike me as a huge waste of an opportunity to act on our behalf.

It is my belief that these applications are being submitted in the time gap between the implementation of the NPPF and the adoption of a Local & Neighbourhood Plans.

Developers are pretty much assured of winning any appeals against refusal by contending that the council has no enforceable housing strategy.

If Neil did want to bring up Neighbourhood Plans, surely we would want him to ask what help and guidance is available to parishes to speed up their writing and adoption, and whether this could be extended?

Or try to ascertain what weight will be given to Neighbourhood Plans in decision making in future, as this is far from clear at present.

Or even to raise the question of some sort of development moratorium until the plans in place?

Not to use the chance to roll out some factually questionable puff to support his government’s dysfunctional planning policy and score brownie points with his leadership into the bargain.

Mr Carmichael was kind enough to come to Leonard Stanley and have his photo taken at the demonstration opposing the Mankley Field development.

But he did not have the courage to represent the 100-150 of his constituents who stood behind him only two days before.

If Mr Carmichael wants to retain any chance of remaining our MP beyond May 2015, I would suggest that he grows a backbone pretty rapidly and gets out there to fight on our behalf in the place that matters, as we appear to be pretty powerless to influence things locally.

Richard Hillary

Leonard Stanley