Mark Tompson, of Dartmouth, writes:

I write in response to the story Jobs fears, Chronicle, Februay 20, and the comment 'Dartmouth could end up with 400 new homes with 400 jobless families in them'.

A large number of the working families I know rent their homes and would welcome affordable housing.

No town or village is, or should be, expected to provide all the employment for the people living there. When did this new model come in?

I imagine most of the objectors of this scheme have commuted at some time in their lives.

I will also hazard a guess that most of the objectors are retired and this may lead to the previous misconception, in that when retired you may seek a reduced circle of services and amenities.

Most working people will think nothing of commuting to work.

I imagine the two groups who would need to be most concerned will be landlords and property owners who expect the current strangely inflated house prices to remain, seeing the extra value their properties gained under the last government as somthing they had earned, and not the result of simple supply and demand, and easily available credit.

So to return to the original comment, 'with 400 jobless families in them', maybe I am mistaken but wouldn't people be expected to buy most of these houses? If so, I would imagine they would have jobs, most of them, shock horror, not actually in Dartmouth.

There is an obvious polarity in the South Hams between the retired and the working. It is a tricky problem and I'm not simply having a go at the former.

I would, however, ask for a little maturity when making headline-type comments like the '400 jobless' one.