We all know we need more houses, but large stand-alone garden communities are not the way.

There are many alternatives.

It is worth remembering that Poundbury, which is held up as a success, is not a large garden community.

It has a population of 3,000, compared to West Tey’s projected 16,000, and is in fact an urban extension of Dorchester.

This latter point means that Poundbury is able to use some of Dorchester’s infrastructure, which reduces costs.

West Tey would need all of its own infrastructure to make it viable.

The problem with West Tey is that it will be a commuter town.

When it is completed, it will be larger than wider Braintree and over twice the size of Witham - a monster.

Most of the houses will be high priced and will not be affordable by people working in the new town, people such as shop staff, store personnel, workers generally.

Thus the vast majority of the people who live there will need to commute by train or car in order to obtain salaries commensurate with the price of the houses.

Imagine the traffic jams at Marks Tey station and the pressure on the A12.

Look at Tollgate, with only a 24th of the houses of West Tey and already there are problems of traffic build-up in the area.

The whole proposal is unviable and should be dropped.

By Giles Coode-Adams OBE of Coggeshall Road, Feering