AS a frequent visitor to Durham city, with long-term family connections, I have followed various local planning issues.

A new County Plan is out for consultation now, which restarts a debate about the City of Durham Green Belt: this includes proposals for 1900 houses at Sniperley Park, and for a Western Relief Road. These were also part of the earlier plan that was stopped in its tracks by the inspector’s report in 2015.

There are arguments for and against each including whether such major developments should be allowed in the green belt at all (how about “obviously not”?).

The Council say that in each case there are “exceptional circumstances”: a new Inspector will need to make a decision.

But the real curiosity here is that the Council is arguing that without the WRR then Sniperley Park could not be developed (traffic problems): and that without Sniperley Park, the WRR could not be built (the Sniperley developers would help pay for it): and somehow that this justifies the proposals.

A strange world where two parts of the green belt (stretching 2.5 miles north to south, with a lot going on environmentally and historically) can be presented as so toxic to each other: and a sad contrast with the council’s proposed policy 21: “The green belt, as shown on the policies map, will be provided with the greatest possible protection”.

Should the council begin to accept that they are “barking up the wrong tree”?

J B Grant, London