Sir.-The navety of Cllr Jones in asking the sub regional group for more houses to be allocated to Basingstoke is breathtaking.

Surely his alarm bells should have sounded when he realised that he was ploughing a lone furrow.

And if Cllr Gurden thinks the regional council will not insist that this offer be honoured, then he is equally nave - unless they have an expansion policy, for which there is no mandate, and are using affordable housing, where the requirements post-2016 are unknown, as a vehicle to promote it.

The commitment has been made, and, like it or not, the borough will now be required to build an extra 10,000 houses.

One may have imagined that this topic was of such importance that it should have been put to the full council before any such offer was made.

However, the Cabinet apparently knows best - and this is yet another example of so-called local government democracy!

-H E Mansfield, The Mead, Old Basing.

Sir.-A recent article indicated that Cllr Brian Gurden would be supportive of an additional 20,000 houses in Basingstoke.

This is on top of the 4,400 homes the council has already agreed should be built by 2016.

Given the sheer magnitude of this development, the council must have considered where the additional housing stock would be accommodated.

To the west, the council has designated Manydown to fulfil existing central government house-building targets, though this will be contested at the forthcoming planning inquiry. The same goes for Popley to the north, and I understand that development on farmland to the south of the borough is rejected on all sides.

A total of 20,000 houses equates to three new residential areas the size of Chineham.

So perhaps the borough council can tell us exactly where these 20,000 new houses would be built?

-Maria Miller, Basingstoke's Conservative Prospective Parliamentary Candidate.