The clock is ticking. Since a referendum in June when 96.3 per cent of East Grinstead residents voted No to 2,500 new houses, there has been time for Mid Sussex Council to reflect.

There must have been moments when councillors have asked themselves questions such as, "Where did we go wrong?", "How did they find out?" and "What on earth do we do now?"

You would imagine a lost sense of duty would somehow be rediscovered - that our elected representatives would see the error of their ways and finally recognise their privileged positions are granted them by us, the public of East Grinstead.

After all, we are empowered to take away as well as to give.

But you could hear a pin drop in the deafening silence that echoes around the council chambers these days.

Where are all those Liberal Democrats, so hungry for power, who promised their support when we voted against the housing?

Where is our doughty Conservative defender Nicholas Soames MP in our time of crisis?

The propaganda machine the council calls Mid Sussex Matters has wheeled out of its dusty reserves of party faithfulls an alien by the name of Judith Hewitt, whom some will recall from the town meeting held just ahead of the referendum, made wild and uninformed statements regarding the apparently ignored, but eminently suitable, East of M23 site.

I say "alien", since clearly she must live on another planet if she can be unaware

of the referendum result and concentrate instead on trying to persuade us "the Structure Plan will provide a new East Grinstead of which local people can be proud".

Even the representatives of developers who attended a lively Imberhorne Residents' Association meeting found themselves admitting that "Only the people who live in the new development would benefit from the amenities".

And all along we have been encouraged to believe the town needs this development to survive and enjoy "planning gain" and new, improved amenities when in fact we would merely become outsiders in our own neighbourhood.

Businesses with a vested interest in seeing more cars, more people and bigger profits have enjoyed a summer of unchallenged support for expansion and development while an impotent council has bathed in the sunshine of their endorsement.

-Ian Dicks, East Grinstead