Sir – As a Carterton resident, your correspondent, Mr Paul Hughes (Letters, April 18) must surely know that the proposed Carterton East development will be located within 500 metres of the Aircraft Servicing Platform (ASP) at RAF Brize Norton.


This is where all aircraft movements begin and end and where engines are tested for prolonged periods. It will also overlook two large hangars in use 24 hours a day.


The present football field is also likely to be replaced by a new hotel complex for service personnel.
The adjoining Shilton Park development has already brought major flooding problems to Brize Norton. That is a reality.


There are many valid technical objections to the Carterton East development (noise, air and light pollution, sewerage, flooding, coalescence, access to Carterton town centre, traffic, etc) but I would prefer to ask Mr Hughes the same questions we are asking the WODC councillors who will shortly be voting on this issue:


1: Would you want to live there?


2: Would you offer financial help to a son or daughter wishing to invest in a property there?


If, as I predict, the answers to the above are ‘No’, then Carterton East should be dropped and an alternative site found where young families can live in a more peaceful environment.

Doubtless, this will raise the hackles of the Nimbys, but our first concern must be towards providing good long-term solutions rather than ‘quick fixes’ which will come back to bite WODC and, by association, Mr Cameron.
Keith Beckingham, Brize Norton