Residents in Old Hale Way and Bearton Green received letters this week regarding the planning appeal in Old Hale Way, Hitchin. To our delight the Planning Inspectorate agreed that the scheme proposed by Michael Shanley Homes was unsuitable for the site. M

Residents in Old Hale Way and Bearton Green received letters this week regarding the planning appeal in Old Hale Way, Hitchin. To our delight the Planning Inspectorate agreed that the scheme proposed by Michael Shanley Homes was unsuitable for the site. May I through your columns express my thanks to everyone who wrote at each of the planning stages, signed our petition, or supported our cause in The Comet or at the Hitchin Committee.

So many times throughout this campaign I have been told that there was not a chance or that it was all a waste of time. But not by any of the residents who knew the value of the site under threat of redevelopment and took it upon themselves to find out the planning arguments that underlined our case.

We overturned the initial planning recommendation by NHDC when it was heard by the Hitchin Committee in November, and then won our case when Michael Shanley Homes took it to appeal, a true demonstration of hard work and local democracy in action.

MARTYN ANNETS, Bearton Green, Hitchin