I WOULD just like to agree with the letter in last week’s paper (Warrington Guardian, February 22) re that lack of affordable housing.

The whole NIMBY brigade of whingers and moaners who like to complain about the local plan and Western Link seem to have completely forgotten this.

We have a massive housing crisis in this town and indeed across the whole country.

Young people are struggling to buy a house and face two choices.

One is to be paying huge amounts of rent for their own place which means they can’t afford a new house or staying with their parents until they are 30 or 40.

At the same time we have pieces of land which could be built on and are currently empty.

The suggestion for building on the former timber merchants in Latchford for example seems like an eminently sensible option.

Where I do disagree with the author is over the plans for Grappenhall Heys and Appleton.

That land has been earmarked for development for decades.

Just walk around there and the signs have been clear that this land was going to have houses on it.

There are plenty of other similar pieces of land too.

Given there are 700-odd homes, some must be made affordable.

The answer is not to deny development simply because it might not be affordable. It is to work into any planning application an obligation that there must be an affordable element.

We don’t want to see parkland built on but with people living longer and wages not really increasing, we have to build houses if we are going to avoid a massive housing crisis.

We have lovely countryside in Warrington but we also have lovely people who deserve somewhere lovely to live.

JOHN TAYLOR Appleton