THREE reports this week illustrate some of the problems which can be encountered building housing on so-called brownfield sites in our towns.

The demand for housing, fueled by splitting families, is growing and at the same time it has been decided that we must no longer keep expanding our towns and cities into the surrounding countryside.

The answer is to build the new homes the nation needs within the existing boundaries of settlements, hence the fashionability of brownfield sites. We need new homes in towns for other reasons too. People who have their homes in the centre of town are more likely to use the town centre shops and services we all wish to preserve. Those who live on the outskirts, on the estates built on green fields typically adjacent to bypasses, find it all to easy to head for the out-of-town developments in their cars. It is a town planning and environmental nightmare we have turned our back on.

As we report this week, one developer is responsible for planning applications in Aiskew - the site of a former gas depot - and Easingwold - the site of a former garage. A third site at Middleton St George, near Darlington, is currently in use with a working factory. All three are classic examples of the previously built-on land the government and countryside preservation groups wish to see used for new housing. Although two applications have been approved by Hambleton District Council both plans have run into fierce opposition from nearby residents. The same is true of the Middleton St George application. Central to the campaigns of opposition in all three cases is the belief that the number of homes planned is too high and that local services, be they sewerage or roads will not be able to cope.

We cannot have it both ways. If we, as concerned residents, do not want more green fields ploughed up to create more of the sprawling estates we now hate (unless we live in them, of course), we have to accept that these brownfield sites have to take a higher home density to meet the demand and also help developers cover the higher costs of building in towns.

It is too easy to say developers are just profiteering. Of course they are in business to make money, but allowing the developer a reasonable return on his investment is the price we pay for getting the homes we need built. There has to be a degree of accommodation.

Ten years ago, developers would not have looked at the Aiskew and Easingwold sites, or the one at Middleton St George. The fact that they are prepared to consider building on them now should be encouraged